DPRK Working group to meet in Beijing on nuke issue

The South Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that the concerned parties to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula will hold a working group meeting on May 12 in Beijing.

"The deputy representatives for the talks in February will serve as chief officials this time for the working-level meeting," South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck told reporters.

In February, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan held the second round of the six-party talks aimed to resolve the nuclear issue, in which they agreed to hold the third round of such talks before June.

At the working group meeting, the concerned parties will try to find a way to freeze the DPRK's nuclear program based on the principle of complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement initiated by the United States, Lee said.

As to Pyongyang's demand for protection of its non-military nuclear activities, Lee said "the other countries don't deny its nuclear program for medical and agricultural purposes, but the nuclear program for generating electricity, which can be switched to military use, will be disallowed until Pyongyang receives trust from the international community."

"The DPRK also agreed to it in the 1994 Geneva Agreement," he added.

The first round of the six-party talks was held in Beijing last August.