Special report: 4th round of six-party talks

    BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said here Friday there obviously existed "some real difficulties" in the current six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue talks.

    "I'm not willing to say that this is going to be an unsuccessful Friday. But obviously, we have some real difficulties ahead of us."

    All the five parties involved in the negotiation "have similar interests," said Hill, referring to China, the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan.

    The United States, the ROK and Japan, in particular, have "very very similar interests" in the six-party talks, added the US assistant secretary of state, who did not comment on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a major player of the talks.

    The US delegation would have one-on-one meetings with the ROK and Japanese delegations Friday to discuss "where the involved parties are and what the way forward is," he told reporters before leaving the hotel.

    The six parties resumed the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing on Tuesday after a five-week recess. But the negotiation got deadlocked since Wednesday as the DPRK delegation insisted on the country's right to civilian nuclear programs, especially when it demanded a light-water reactor.

    The US side rejected the demand, saying it was a non-starter.

    The DPRK and US delegations held a 90-minute bilateral meeting Thursday, the second meeting since Tuesday. Neither of the two made immediate comment on the result of the meeting.

    A Chinese delegation spokesman said Thursday, "there are still great differences on certain issues (among the six parties)" on the objectives and ways for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

    "There is no progress today due to the differences between the DPRK and the United States," a DPRK delegation spokesman said at its first news briefing Thursday evening.

    Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei acknowledged the six-party talks are currently in difficulty, but he struck an optimistic message by saying that the difficulties could be overcome. Enditem