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.

"The way leading to peace was never smooth, but the struggle for peace was the historic responsibility for all concerned parties," Wang said, noting it was not an easy process to resolve the nuclear issue, but upholding the process of peaceful talks was the only right choice.

He said China will continue to promote the peaceful process of the nuclear issue and make joint efforts with the concerned parties for safeguarding peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.

James Kelly, delegation head of the United States and Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs said the comprehensive settlement of the nuclear issue will help promote new relations between Pyongyang and Washington and the international community. Kelly expressed hope that all concerned parties whould respect each other's rights and abide by relevant international duty. The United States is willing to make utmost efforts for promoting the peaceful talks, he added.

Before the opening of the talks, the Chinese envoy held separate bilateral consultations with the delegation heads from the other five countries.

All the five parties pledged to show flexibility and try to make progress in the talks.

The crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programmes erupted in October 2002, when US officials said North Korea had disclosed it was working on a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of an international treaty.

US wants North Korea to abandon its programme to make weapons-grade plutonium and the uranium enrichment programme, which Pyongyang says does not exist.

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.