No timetable is expected for restarting six-party talks, but all relevant parties are still working for resuming the peace talks, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a press conference on July 5.

Liu said China welcomes the recent contact by the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in New York when the two parties attended an academic conference on northeast Asian security.

"The contact is helpful to promote understanding between the United States and DPRK," Liu said.

"We hope all relevant parties, especially the United States and DPRK, can increase contacts, release more positive signals, sincerely push the peace talks process in a flexible, constructive and pragmatic way, so as to create a favorable condition for resuming talks at an early date," he said.

The academic conference, held between June 30 to July 1, was co-hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) and the DPRK Institute of Disarmament and Peace.

The officials discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula during the meeting, which, according to a press release at the end of the meeting, was the third such conference co-hosted by the two organizations.

Conference participants agreed that discussions were frank and constructive and they are optimistic that the DPRK will return to the six-party talks.

By June last year, three rounds of the six-party talks, which involved the DPRK, Republic of Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, had been held.

To revive the talks, officials from the United States and the DPRK held negotiations last November, December and this May respectively through "New York channel".

Source: Xinhua