The curtain finally descended on the fourth round of six-party talks in Beijing at noontime on September 19 amid a tense atmosphere, and a common statement was released.

This round of talks has gone through two stages for a total of 20 days. The process of the talks witnessed ups and downs and was full of suspense.

This round of talks has three major characteristics: first is that bilateral or multilateral consultations were highly intensive; second is that the atmosphere of the talks was tense and fierce, conscientious and pragmatic; third is that the rigid way of arranging the date for the meeting was changed and no specific date for the meeting was fixed, leaving full time for diplomatic mediation. The above-mentioned features give a strong impetus to achieving results for this round of talks.

This round of talks has consolidated the achievements gained in the previous three rounds of talks, added new contents, expanded the connotations of the talks and achieved substantial breakthroughs.

The achievements in this round of talks give real expression to the objective of the six-party talks. It aims to realize denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has long been seeking a change in Washington's hostile policy toward Pyongyang and realization of relations between the DPRK and the United States.

In the common statement, the DPRK and the United States promise that they respect each other's sovereignty, co-exist peacefully and adopt measures to realize normalization of relations in accordance with their respective bilateral policies. This has laid a foundation for improving bilateral ties between the DPRK and the United States and helped the DPRK lift itself out of the Cold War shadow at an early date, and has chartered a clear direction. The six-party talks addressed the question of identifying DPRK-US relations and DPRK-Japanese relations for the first time in written form, and so it is of important significance.

For a long time, developed Western countries headed by the United States have been pursuing a policy of isolating and even blockading the DPRK economically, which has hindered the economic development of the DPRK and has obstructed it from mixing itself with the international community. In the common statement, the six parties promise to promote economic cooperation in the fields of energy resources, trade and investment through bilateral and multilateral forms.? This means opening a door for the DPRK's foreign economic ties, if these measures can be translated into actions at an early date, then DPRK will get a new development opportunity for its economy.

The previous three rounds of talks were concerned only with the Korean nuclear issue per se. There were endless disputes over some very concrete technological problems, such as nuclear abandonment and compensation. These previous three rounds of talks basically did not involve the Korean Peninsular peace mechanism, Northeast Asian security and cooperation or other strategic problems.

Due to the fact that the formation of the Korean nuclear issue has deep-rooted Cold War historical background, if the Cold War pattern of the macrocosmic Korean Peninsula and the differences in Northeast Asian security strategy -- the major issues for the talks are not resolved, then it is impossible for the negotiation on solving the technical aspect of the Korean nuclear issue to achieve substantive breakthroughs.

Article 4 of the common statement has added such contents as the establishment of a permanent peace mechanism for the Korean Peninsula, and explorations of ways by the six parties to strengthen Northeast Asian security and cooperation. This shows that the mechanism and nature of the six-party talks have gradually experienced change from pure discussion on solutions of the Korean nuclear issue to discussion on questions concerning Korean Peninsular and Northeast Asian security mechanisms.

Although the six-party talks may still meet with obstructions and twists and turns, we have reasons to believe that the various parties would not lightly give up this mechanism and platform, on the contrary, they would constantly substantiate its connotations. Given this, we can be optimistic about prospect of the six-party talks.

This article by Li Dunqiu, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center of the World Development Research Institute under the State Council Development Research Center, is published on the front page of People's Daily Overseas Edition, September 20 and translated by People's Daily Online