Negotiators to the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue said on Saturday they have reached certain agreement and a joint document would probably be reached on Sunday.
A latest version of a draft joint statement that included views of all parties was distributed by China Saturday night, according to Japan's top negotiator Kenichiro Sasae.
"We think that the draft has reflected views of all parities...the delegations still have to study the draft and report to their governments, and discussion on the draft will continue Sunday morning," said Sasae after attending a banquet hosted by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo.
U.S. top negotiator Christopher Hill said the parties had no substantive differences and what he cared about was the amount of details in the statement.
"We don't really have any substantive disagreement among the parties...we are pretty satisfied that we know the direction we are heading...and what we are going to accomplish by the end of the year," Hill told reporters after meeting with Dai and other five top negotiators at the banquet.
"I think there will be some kind of statement. But I just don't know how much detail there will be in the statement," Hill said.
After the dinner they had a short meeting, said Hill, adding the Chinese side showed other parties its current progress on making the statement.
"I think there'll have to be some additional meetings, and then we will have to get on with some of the tasks that we've laid out, " he said.
Details like what type of teams to fulfil the disablement and the sequence of the disabling actions were discussed in the meeting, Hill said.
Hill said he is definitely to leave tomorrow as he has "other obligations back in states".
Chief negotiator of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Chun Yung-woo said at a news briefing earlier Saturday night that the six parties have reached some agreement on denuclearization and declaration.
Chun declined to disclose the details of the document, but said "the most important part of it will be the timing of declaration and disablement of nuclear facilities."
According to Chun, the discussion on the draft proceeded well so far and the talks would very much likely end on Sunday.
Russian chief negotiator Alexander Losyukov also expected a joint statement to be released on Sunday after continuous discussions.
"All six nations will continue to discuss the draft joint statement in the evening and tomorrow," said Losyukov earlier Saturday night, adding that it's possible to have the statement released tomorrow.
He also refused to reveal the contents of the draft joint statement.
The six delegation heads met on Saturday morning to discuss the previous versions of the draft joint statement put forward by China. No meetings were held in the afternoon, as the parties had to study the draft joint statement, until Dai's meeting and banquet that lasted about two hours.
According to a press release of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Dai said the fresh round of talks was "vitally important" and there were even harder tasks ahead to be accomplished.
"Your diligent work would be paid back and China highly appreciates the constructive efforts you have made to promote the talks," Dai told the negotiators.
The negotiators said that the negotiations in the past three days were "pragmatic" and "useful" and pledged that their will and determination to resolve the nuclear issue under the framework of the six-party talks would never change and they would continue the hard work and score progress.
The second phase of the sixth round of the six-party talks, which involve China, the United States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the ROK, Russia and Japan, started Thursday and is scheduled to end on Sunday.
So far, the DPRK, whose attitude would be crucial to the success of the draft joint statement, has made no public comments.
Source: Xinhua
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