The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday that it will withdraw from the six-party talks in response to a U.N. Security Council presidential statement on its rocket launch.
The following are some key facts about the six-party talks.
The six-party talks, involving China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, was a multilateral dialogue mechanism brokered by the Chinese government in an effort to seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
The first round of the six-party talks was held in Beijing in Aug. 2003, in which the principle of peacefully resolving the nuclear issue through negotiations had been established.
Now, the six-party talks have entered the sixth round.
On Feb. 13, 2007, the third phase of the fifth round of the six-party talks ended in Beijing with a joint statement on the first step toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In July the same year, the DPRK closed and sealed its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon.
On Oct.3, the second phase of the sixth round of six-party talks released a joint document, named the Second-Phase Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement, under which the DPRK and the United States remain committed to improving their bilateral relations and moving toward a full diplomatic relationship.
In November, the DPRK began to disable three nuclear facilities in Yongbyon. However, the agreement reached on Oct. 3 had not been effectively implemented due to a divergence on the nuclear declaration between the DPRK and the U.S.
The heads of delegation of the six-party talks met in December 2008 in preparation for the seventh round talks, but the date for such a meeting remained unclear.
One of the stumbling blocks of the talks remains the verification issue. The U.S. side claims that the inspectors, according to the deal reached with the DPRK, could take samples away from the nuclear facilities, while the DPRK insists that it never agreed to remove the samples.
On April 5, 2009, the DPRK carried out a rocket launch, arousing serious concerns from the international community.
The UN Security Council on April 13 adopted a presidential statement on the recent rocket launch by the DPRK, saying it is "in contravention of Security Council resolution 1718" and urging the early resumption of the six-party talks.
As the DPRK claimed to pull out of the six-party talks, the prospect of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsular has become even more uncertain now.
Source:Xinhua
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