Sunday, July 10 2005 15:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: In a major breakthrough in the stalled six-party North Korean nuclear talks, Pyongyang yesterday (July 9, 2005) agreed to return to the dialogue table on July 25 after the United States recognised the reclusive Stalinist nation as a 'sovereign state'.

North Korea's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye-gwan and US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who led their countries' delegations to the six-party talks, agreed to open the fourth round of the talks in late July.

"Both sides agreed to open the fourth round of the six-party talks in the week which begins on July 25, 2005," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Kim and Hill met in Beijing yesterday (July 9, 2005) China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

According to KCNA, the US side clarified its official stand to recognise North Korea as a sovereign state, promised not to invade the country and to hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks.

The North Korean side interpreted the US expression of its stand as a retraction of its remark designating Pyongyang as an 'outpost of tyranny' and decided to return to the six-party talks, the KCNA said.

Interestingly, Pyongyang has returned to the six-way talks the day US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beijing for talks with the Chinese leadership.

Before her departure to Beijing, Rice told reporters Friday that the United States had no 'timetable' for North Korea to return to the stalled multilateral negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programme and would 'keep opening doors' in a bid to jumpstart the talks.

In an apparent bid to resume the stalled six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, China had yesterday decided to send State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan to Pyongyang, hours after Chinese President Hu Jintao met with his American counterpart George W Bush in Gleneagles on the sidelines of the G8 plus five summit.

By June last year, three rounds of the six-party talks, which involved North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, were held here without much progress.

A fourth round, schedule to be held in September last year did not materialise due to serious differences between Pyongyang and Washington. Pyongyang had refused to attend the fourth round of talks citing 'hostile' US policy.