"As a result of the consultations of the parties concerned, the third phase of the fifth round of the six-party talks on the Korean peninsular nuclear issue will be resumed in Beijing on Feb.8," Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.

    The previous phase of talks recessed in December last year after five days of negotiations which produced no breakthrough.

    Launched in 2003, the talks involve China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia.

    The announcement came after a flurry of shuttle diplomacy among relevant parties, particularly the Berlin meeting between U.S. top negotiator Christopher Hill and his DPRK counterpart Kim Kye-gwan in mid-January.

    "The various parties have held helpful contacts on how to push forward the talks and implement the joint statement," Jiang said, adding that "these contacts have laid the foundation for the early resumption of the six-party talks."

    Jiang said the upcoming talks will be "open-ended" and the duration will depend on the progress of the talks.

    "We hope that all parties will continue to demonstrate positive attitudes, strengthen dialogue, enhance trust and fully implement the joint statement as early as possible and realize the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula."

    On Tuesday afternoon, Daniel Glaser, U.S. Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, held talks with the DPRK officials in U.S. embassy in Beijing on the DPRK financial sanctions.

    The two sides had three hours of meeting in the U.S. embassy, Glaser told reports at hotel on Tuesday evening.

    "Two of the issues have been on the our agenda, the Banco Delta Asia(BDA) and concerns about counterfeiting," said Glaser.

    "In the past 18 months, we had gone through over 300,000 pages of documents and everything we have seen in the documents have confirmed we have been saying, that there are really a lot of troubling activities going on at that bank," he said.

    Glaser said he hoped the talks would give some opportunities to shed more light upon the issues the U.S. side was concerned about.

    "What I think we accomplished today is to establish a framework that will allow us to work more and talk more about this tomorrow and in the days to come," he said.

    As for the counterfeiting, Glaser said they brought two experts from the United States secret service to Beijing to describe their investigations on the issue in their financial meeting.

    "This is certainly going to be something that we're going to have to keep coming back to," he added.

    The bilateral financial talks are the second of its kind, following the first one which held in Beijing in December.

    The DPRK delegation led by O Kwang Chol, president of the DPRK's Foreign Trade Bank, arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning for the current financial discussions.

    The two sides plan to meet again Wednesday morning in the DPRK embassy in Beijing, said Glaser.

Related:

    U.S. hopes to make "substantial" progress in six-party talks

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States expressed hope on Tuesday that the six-party talks to be resumed on Feb. 8 will make "substantial" progress in trying to dismantle the nuclear program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

    "We've now gone through some additional consultations and I think we're hopeful that this round will, in fact, achieve that objective and we'll be able to see some substantial progress on it," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said at a briefing.

    S.Korean, Russian FMs exchange views on nuclear talks

    SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Ministers of South Korea and Russia exchanged their views on the upcoming six-party talks on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday and agreed to make substantial progress in the talks, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said.

   According to a news release by the ministry, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon talked with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the phone earlier in the day and reached consensus on outstanding issues.    

    China hopes six-party talks to be resumed before Lunar New Year

    BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China hopes the six-party talks would be resumed before the Chinese Lunar New Year in Mid February, said Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan Thursday.

    "The six-party talks constitute the realistic and effective way to solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," Tang told the visiting Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Song Min-soon.

    "Recently the parties concerned have carried out helpful contacts and reached some consensus," said Tang, adding that China will work with the ROK to make the talks resume at an early date and strive for some positive progress.

    DPRK: upcoming six-party talks to focus on implementation of 2005 agreement

    PYONGYANG, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The next round of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue aims to initiate the implementation of an agreement signed in 2005, the chief negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Wednesday.

    "I am satisfied with the results of the talks with the United States, Russia, China and South Korea on how to implement the Sept. 19 agreement," Kim Gye-gwan, head of the DPRK delegation to the six-party talks, told Xinhua at Pyongyang's Sun-an Airport.

    U.S.-DPRK talks lay "solid basis" for future six-party talks

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. official said here on Monday that last week talks between officials of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have laid "solid basis" for progress at next six-party talks.

    The three-day meeting was "a good round of consultations," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a regular news briefing.

    U.S. diplomat in China to discuss date for six-party talks

    BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. chief negotiator Christopher Hill arrived here Sunday to discuss with Chinese officials a possible date to resume the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

    According to the U.S. embassy in Beijing, Hill will meet with his Chinese counterpart, vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, later in the afternoon, briefing Wu about his meeting in Berlin with top negotiator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) KimKye Gwan.

    Six parties issue chairman's statement on nuclear issue

    BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue recessed on Friday afternoon after issuing a chairman's statement .

    The recess came after five days of negotiations in Beijing by six delegations, namely, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia.

    The chairman's statement said the six parties agreed to implement the joint statement of Sept. 19, 2005 as soon as possible "in a phased manner."