CHINA: Negotiators for the six-party talks arrive for a Banquet ahead of talks on Monday

The lead negotiators for the fifth round of six-party talks gathered for a banquet hosted by the Chinese in Beijing before the meeting officially begins on Monday (December 18). Russia has replaced its lead negotiator in six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, the Russian embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. The new lead negotiator is Russia's ambassador to China, Sergei Razov, replacing Alexander Alexeyev, deputy foreign minister in charge of Asia. The Russian embassy gave no explanation for the change. Analysts and officials hold out little hope of a major breakthrough, however, for the talks set to formally resume between the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China after a gap of more than a year. North Korea test-fired missiles in July and carried out its first nuclear test in October, triggering international condemnation and U.N. sanctions supported even by its closest ally and biggest oil and aid supplier, China. For his part, North Korea's envoy Kim Kye-gwan urged an end to what he called Washington's hostility toward it. On arriving in Beijing on Saturday (December 16), Kim also demanded an end to U.S. financial restrictions against it as a prerequisite to progress on measures agreed in a September 2005 six-party accord. In that agreement, North Korea agreed in principle to scrap its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees. But months later it boycotted the six-party talks in response to a U.S. crackdown on what Washington says is Pyongyang's counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and money-laundering, which led to North Korean accounts at Macau's Banco Delta Asia being frozen. Hill indicated that Washington was prepared to deal on the issue of financial restrictions, and a separate delegation from the U.S. Treasury Department would be meeting the North Koreans in Beijing this week. But both Hill and Japan's envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, said the focus of the talks should be on taking steps to implement the September 2005 agreement.

ITN Source | December 17, 2006

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