After consultation the DPRK and the United States decided to hold the fourth round of the six-party talks in the week of July 25. The good news indicates that the six-party talks, which have been in a state of behind-the-curtain wrestling since the end of the third round in June last year, are finally ready to restart.

For some time, diplomatic activities centered around the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula have been particularly intensive on the world stage. Bilateral or multilateral consultations such as between the DPRK and US, the DPRK and the ROK, the DPRK and Russia, China and the US, China and the DPRK, China and the ROK are held with such frequency that they dazzle one's eyes. No efforts are spared to get the six-party talks back on track.

As time goes by the situation evolves. The reason the circumstance has matured is, in the final analysis, because of the popular sentiment and the general trend of the times. The fourth round of six-party talks scheduled to start in September 2004 did not occur due to serious lack of mutual trust between the two main parties concerned -- the DPRK and US --, and constraint of factors such as the imminent US presidential election, which made impossible fruitful dialogue on substantial issues concerning the strategic interests of the two sides.

At the beginning of this year, a senior official in the new cabinet of the Bush administration called the DPRK "outpost of tyranny", which was followed by the DPRK's declaration that it had manufactured nuclear weapons for self-defense. One move was followed by a counter move, giving rise to continued twists and turns. However, the situation is, after all, more telling than human. The stalemate in Iraq, the changes of the political situation in Iran as well as the recent bombings in London all, from a different angle, urge the concerned parties including the DPRK and US to accelerate denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula through dialogues.

It was for this reason that both the DPRK and US let off signals to reconcile. The US stated that the DPRK is a sovereign state and it has no intention to invade it. The statement, in certain aspect, responds to the DPRK's concern for its own security and is at the same time interpreted as correction of the so-called "outpost of tyranny" comment.

With a series of diamond-cutting-diamond tests of strength the DPRK and US finally expressed willingness to return to the six-party talks mechanism. It was a sensible decision made out of their respective fundamental interests after balancing the advantages and disadvantages in light of current international situation.

One notices that in the effort to get the six-party talks back on track China has always been practically and realistically playing the active role of a responsible country. On July 10 the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked China for helping bring about resumption of the six-party talks. She said China has been playing a "very active" role in relaunching the six-party talks.

The remarks were true. In promoting the formation and operation of the six-party talks mechanism China has always been playing the constructive role of "encouraging peace and promoting talks". While the six-party talks came to a halt China, on the one hand, worked with perseverance and continuously encouraged the various sides with all kinds of efforts to seek common points while reserving difference.

On the other, it maintained calmness under various kinds of pressure, strived to realize a reasonable, advantageous and restrained multi-win situation. Solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through peace talks is a stern test of the political wisdom of mankind. In the face of this test China's diplomacy was tempered and has won acknowledgement.

In today's world the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is one of the most complicated, most sensitive and most thorny hotspots. Therefore, the six-party talks to solve the issue through peace dialogues are bound to be a rather lengthy process.

The six-party talks go all the way to the present, from the DPRK and US' point-blank refusal to meet face to face to direct contact between the two sides under the artful design of the six-party talks, from the first round when being able to talk was regarded as success to the third when the various sides frankly put forward solutions, with each step accomplished with extreme difficulty. The above achievements are already hard to come by.

During the fourth round talks the concerned parties will inevitably conduct substantial negotiations regarding concrete strategic interests. It is not hard to imagine the difficulties. In any case, as far as such a complicated international issue is concerned the fact that the six parties will be able to sit together again and talk is by itself an accomplishment. It seems that the old saying is still applicable to this issue, that is, the road is tortuous, but the prospects are bright.

By People's Daily Online