US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill answers questions of the six-party talks from journalists in Beijing May 25. (Xinhua Photo)

US chief negotiator indicates no new progress on six-party talks

    BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill left Beijing for Seoul on Thursday afternoon without much progress on resuming six-party talks.

    Hill told reporters when leaving hotel for airport that he and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei reaffirmed interests for the both sides in the six-party talks.

    They also discussed where the talks need to go and how to implement the September agreement once the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) comes back to the talks, according to Hill.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the talks between Wu and Hill lasted about four hours and the two sides exchanged profound views on the issues of common concern, especially the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

    "But very unfortunately, I don't have anything new on that, and it's very much the way I left Tokyo six weeks ago", Hill told reporters in the hotel when he was departing to Seoul, capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK).

    However, Hill stressed that the United States remains very much committed to the six-party talks mechanism.

    Last September, the negotiators from China, the DPRK, the United Sates, the ROK, Russia and Japan issued the joint statement at the end of the fourth round of the talks, establishing a frame for a package solution to the nuclear issue.

    The first phase of the fifth round of talks was held in Beijing Last November. The talks ended up with a Chairman's Statement, in which the parties concerned agreed to resume the talks as soon as possible. Enditem