BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Negotiators to the
six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue said on Saturday they have
reached certain agreement and a joint document would probably be reached on
Sunday.
A latest version of a draft joint statement that
included views of all parties was distributed by China Saturday night, according
to Japan's top negotiator Kenichiro Sasae.
"We think that the draft has reflected views of all
parities...the delegations still have to study the draft and report to their
governments, and discussion on the draft will continue Sunday morning," said
Sasae after attending a banquet hosted by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai
Bingguo.
U.S. top negotiator Christopher Hill said the parties
had no substantive differences and what he cared about was the amount of details
in the statement.
"We don't really have any substantive disagreement
among the parties...we are pretty satisfied that we know the direction we are
heading...and what we are going to accomplish by the end of the year," Hill told
reporters after meeting with Dai and other five top negotiators at the banquet.
"I think there will be some kind of statement. But I
just don't know how much detail there will be in the statement," Hill said.
After the dinner they had a short meeting, said Hill,
adding the Chinese side showed other parties its current progress on making the
statement.
"I think there'll have to be some additional
meetings, and then we will have to get on with some of the tasks that we've laid
out," he said.
Details like what type of teams to fulfil the
disablement and the sequence of the disabling actions were discussed in the
meeting, Hill said.
Hill said he is definitely to leave tomorrow as he
has "other obligations back in states".
Chief negotiator of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Chun
Yung-woo said at a news briefing earlier Saturday night that the six parties
have reached some agreement on denuclearization and declaration.
Chun declined to disclose the details of the
document, but said "the most important part of it will be the timing of
declaration and disablement of nuclear facilities."
According to Chun, the discussion on the draft
proceeded well so far and the talks would very much likely end on Sunday.
Russian chief negotiator Alexander Losyukov also
expected a joint statement to be released on Sunday after continuous
discussions.
"All six nations will continue to discuss the draft
joint statement in the evening and tomorrow," said Losyukov earlier Saturday
night, adding that it's possible to have the statement released tomorrow.
He also refused to reveal the contents of the draft
joint statement.
The six delegation heads met on Saturday morning to
discuss the previous versions of the draft joint statement put forward by China.
No meetings were held in the afternoon, as the parties had to study the draft
joint statement, until Dai's meeting and banquet that lasted about two hours.
According to a press release of the Chinese Foreign
Ministry, Dai said the fresh round of talks was "vitally important" and there
were even harder tasks ahead to be accomplished.
"Your diligent work would be paid back and China
highly appreciates the constructive efforts you have made to promote the talks,"
Dai told the negotiators.
The negotiators said that the negotiations in the
past three days were "pragmatic" and "useful" and pledged that their will and
determination to resolve the nuclear issue under the framework of the six-party
talks would never change and they would continue the hard work and score
progress.
The second phase of the sixth round of the six-party
talks, which involve China, the United States, the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (DPRK), the ROK, Russia and Japan, started Thursday and is scheduled to
end on Sunday.
So far, the DPRK, whose attitude would be crucial to
the success of the draft joint statement, has made no public
comments.