Six-Party Talks Likely to Resume on September 13

Six-Party Talks Likely to Resume on September 13. September. 07, 2005 06:34. by Jong-Koo Yoon jkmas@donga.com.

The second phase of the fourth round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear standoff is expected to resume on September 13 in Beijing, China.

A government official revealed on September 6, “North Korea proposed to the host country China that the talks be resumed on the afternoon of September 13, and China said it was consulting the issue with South Korea, the U.S., Japan, and Russia.”

If other countries do not oppose resuming talks on September 13, China is expected to officially announce the date of the talks’ resumption in the near future.

If the talks continue that day, the meeting will resume 37 days after entering into a recess on August 7 due to the U.S.-North differences on the “North’s right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The second phase was initially scheduled to be held on the week starting August 29, but Pyongyang unilaterally delayed the resumption two weeks on August 29 as it took issue with the “Ulji Exercise,” a joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise.