Beijing: North Korea today (June 23, 2004) offered to freeze its nuclear programmes if US abandoned its "hostile" policies towards it as the third-round of six-party talks on the vexed Korean nuclear issue commenced in Beijing.

The common goal for all concerned parties was to build a nuclear weapon-free Korean peninsula and Pyongyang will propose the "freeze for compensation" programme in this round of talks, so as to break the deadlock in the nuclear issue, head of the North Korean delegation, Kim Kye Gwan said at the opening ceremony. Kim, also, the Communist nation's Deputy Foreign Minister, urged Washington to withdraw its demand for the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling (CVID) of North Korea's nuclear programme.

Senior envoys from China, North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia attended the talks and their delegation heads addressed the opening ceremony, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also chairman of this round of six-party talks said the parties concerned have jointly fixed the goal of building a nuclear weapon-free Korean peninsula.

Further, the talks established channels of resolving the nuclear issue, paved the way out through peaceful talks, avoided further worsening of the nuclear issue and eased the tense situation in the Korean peninsula, he said.

He said all parties should safeguard and treasure these important results, which were not easy to be achieved.