With all members of the six-party talks gathered in Beijing on Tuesday, the second round of talks on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue is ready to start.   

The six parties, including China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan, have been busy holding consultations in the past two days to get better prepared for the meeting scheduled in Beijing at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The Chinese delegation, led by China's Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi, held consultations with the Russian side Monday. On Tuesday the Chinese delegation met with the other four delegations respectively.

Wang Yi said the second round of multilateral nuclear talks will start discussions with substantial content, which is an important symbol that the process of the talks will go deeply.

Wang said China is willing, together with all the parties concerned, to not only start the talks but also help see the talks continue and lead to concrete results.

DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said the DPRK's attendance at the talks is for the purpose of solving problems. The DPRK is ready to show flexibility during the talks and to strive to help the current round of talks to achieve substantial results, he noted.

James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs of the United States, said the US side will continue to work for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula. He said the United States is ready to seek common points among the parties and remain patient during the talks.

Lee Soo-Hyuck, the ROK's deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mitoji Yabunaka, director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, said they will adopt an active attitude to strengthen communication and coordination with all the other parties to secure smooth progress of the talks.

Russian Vice Foreign Minister Alexander Losiukov, who is leading the Russian delegation in Beijing, expressed "cautious optimism" on the upcoming six-party talks when arriving in Beijing on Monday, but he also admitted there were "a number of uncertainties" around the talks.

Losiukov said the Russian side supports the DPRK's proposal of freezing its nuclear program.

The second round of six-party talks will be held again at the Fang Fei Yuan villa in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, which also hosted the talks among China, the DPRK and the United States last April and the first round of six-party talks last August.

Over 600 journalists from home and overseas have applied to cover the event so far and schedules of press briefings will be released at the press office in the Diaoyutai Grand Hotel adjacent to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2004)