Chinese senior diplomat Wang Yi said in Beijing Saturday that the disputes among all parties participating in the third round of six-party talks on the nuclear issue in the Korean Peninsula were narrowed.

Wang, chairman of the third round of six-party talks, Chinese delegation head and vice foreign minister, made the remarks at a press conference after the closing of this round of talks.

The nuclear issue faced two difficulties currently: one is the scope and measures of nuclear abandonment, the other is the scope of corresponding measures of the nuclear freeze, Wang said.

All parties, especially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States, had serious differences on these problems, he said, noting that the disputes were narrowed in this round of the six-party talks.

On the issue of nuclear abandonment, the US side put forward for the first time that the DPRK could give up all nuclear projects permanently, comprehensively and transparently, and the DPRK advanced for the first time to abandon all nuclear weapons and relevant projects transparently, Wang said. This showed that attitudes of the two sides began to go closer.

On the issue of nuclear freeze, the DPRK stated clearly that freezing was the first step toward abandonment, and it was willing to accept investigation on this problem, Wang said.

China, Russia, the Republic of Korea and Japan all agreed to take measures simultaneously to solve the concerns of the DPRK, and the United States also expressed its willingness to study DPRK's requirements, Wang said.

"The other side of difficulty is hope, and the process to solve difficulties is the process to realize hopes," said Wang. "There is no difficulty that cannot be solved, no hopes cannot be realized, if we persevere in our talks."

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2004)