South and North Korea reached a consensus on setting up a framework for the denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula in Beijing Sunday, according to a senior South Korean diplomat.

Following a 100-minute meeting with his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-gwan yesterday morning, Song Min-soon, deputy foreign minister and head of the South Korean delegation for the upcoming six-party talks, told a press conference there had been agreement on many issues but declined to give details.

It was the first meeting between them since their arrival in Beijing for the talks, scheduled to begin at 9 AM on Tuesday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the venue for the previous three rounds of six-party talks. 

They decided to continue bilateral talks to help ensure results in the six-party talks, Song said, which also involve China, Japan, Russia and the US.

The South Korean delegation will also hold bilateral dialogue with the other four delegations, according to Song.

The North and South Korean delegations arrived in Beijing on Friday and Saturday respectively. 

The US and Japanese delegations arrived yesterday while the Russian delegation is expected to arrive Monday morning. 

The Chinese side will host a banquet in honor of all five visiting delegations this evening at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

The fourth round of six-party talks, originally scheduled to be held last September, was postponed after North Korea said the US was hostile toward it. 

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue came to the fore in the 1990s. From 2003 to 2004, the six countries held three rounds of talks in Beijing, but no substantial progress was made.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2005)