Friday, November 11 2005 14:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme entered a recess here today (Nov 11, 2005) without making much headway but all sides renewed their commitment for working towards denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

"The parties reaffirmed that they would fully implement the joint statement in line with the principle of 'commitment for commitment, action for action' so as to realise the verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula at an early date and contribute to lasting peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia," the Chairman's statement said.

The Chairman's statement, agreed upon after much wrangling over the past three days, states that the six sides: the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia emphasised that they are willing to comprehensively implement the joint statement (issued on September 19) through confidence building, carry out all commitments in different areas.

"The parties conducted serious, pragmatic and constructive discussions and put forward proposals on how to implement the joint statement of the fourth round of the six-party talks", the statement, read out by Chinese chief delegate and Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said.

The six parties also said that they are willing to commence and conclude the process in a timely and coordinated manner and achieve balanced interests and win-win result through cooperation.

"The parties agreed to formulate concrete plans, measures and steps to fulfil the joint statement in accordance with the afore-mentioned spirit," the Chairman's statement said.

The statement said that the six parties agreed to hold the second session of the fifth round of six-party talks 'at the earliest possible date'.

The Chairman's statement was read out by the head of the Chinese delegation, Wu Dawei at a closing ceremony held after three days of talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. The first phase of the talks entered a recess to allow some delegation members to attend the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea next week.

All five countries but North Korea, South Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia are members of the APEC, a grouping of 21 Pacific Rim countries. Their top leaders, including US President George W. Bush, will attend the APEC summit in South Korea's southern city of Busan.

In the September deal, North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear programmes, rejoin the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and allow inspections in exchange for energy assistance, security assurances and other benefits.

During the fifth round of talks in Beijing that began on Wednesday, the two main protagonists, North Korea and the United States criticised each other yesterday, with Washington telling Pyongyang to focus first on scrapping its nuclear programmes and the North Korea blasting the United States for freezing the financial assets of eight North Korean companies, diplomats said.