Envoys from South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea reached agreement yesterday in Beijing on a framework for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to a senior diplomat.
Song Min-soon, deputy foreign minister and head of the South Korean delegation to the upcoming six-party nuclear issues talks, told a news conference that the two countries forged consensus on many issues during a 100-minute session, but he declined to give details.
Meanwhile, Washington's chief representative to the talks expressed cautious optimism as he arrived in Beijing yesterday.
"We came here to try to make some real progress," said Christopher Hill, head of the US delegation.
"We would like to make measurable progress.... I wouldn't expect this to be the last set of negotiation," he said.
Hill said he is looking forward to the talks, which begin on Tuesday and involve the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.
"It is going to take a little time and a lot of work.... We will try to do the best we can to make sure we reach progress," he said.
Hill said he had no idea how long the new round of talks will last. Huge difficulties remain as the previous three rounds of the talks in 2003 and 2004 failed to achieve substantial progress, observers pointed out.
The new round holds many uncertainties, said Piao Jianyi, a professor at the Asian-Pacific Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Since the negotiating process began, the DPRK has declared itself to be a nuclear nation and officials leading the talks have changed in most delegations.
"It will be very difficult to achieve a major breakthrough or progress in the talks," said another Chinese scholar, Jin Linbo, a professor at the China Institute of International Studies.
Neither the United States nor the DPRK has changed its fundamental positions, and their deep mutual mistrust remains, the Chinese scholars said.
Still, some positive signs exist.
According to a Chinese analyst, the new round became possible only after the United States took "friendly" steps. The US held bilateral talks with the DPRK, stopped its strong criticism of the country, pledged it would treat it as a sovereign state, promised not to invade, the analyst said.
And the DPRK said its goal is to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultations.