Diplomats from China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan held bilateral talks in Beijing on July 25 to prepare for the fourth round of six-party talks.

The talks, slated to open on Tuesday in central-western Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, was expected to resolve the decade-long nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

"New progress should be made and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue should be resolved through the six-nation talks," said Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing at a welcoming banquet in honor of the foreign delegates.

In order to ensure success, all parties are meeting each other to coordinate and transfer messages.

After a DPRK-ROK meeting on Sunday, the US delegation head, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and his DPRK counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan had a 75-minute meeting in Diaoyutai Monday afternoon.

Hill also met with his ROK counterpart Song Min-soon, Japanese delegation head Sasae Kenichiro and Russian delegation chief Alexander Alexeyev on Monday.

Bilateral meetings were also been held between ROK and Japanese delegations, and Russian and DPRK delegations.

Delegations of China, DPRK and the United States all wished the talks would achieve "substantive results", said Alexander Alexeyev, also deputy Russian foreign minister, after bilateral meetings with the DPRK, Chinese and US delegations.

"Such frequent bilateral meetings before the formal launch of the six-party talks indicate that all sides hope to deepen progress and their participation is not due to pressure," said Fu Mengzi, director of the Institute of American studies under the China Academy of Contemporary International Relations.

But the Japanese delegation insists on raising the abduction issue in the talks, which was strongly opposed by the DPRK and was not supported by the other sides, according to Japanese diplomats here who declined to be named.

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue broke out in the 1990s.

Since 2003, China has hosted three rounds of such talks in Diaoyutai, a quiet compound occupied by villas and lakes in the Chinese capital, but no substantial progress was made.

The fourth round of six-party talks, which was originally scheduled to be held last September, was postponed and its resumption rekindles the hope for a breakthrough in the nuclear dismantlement deadlock.

"Compared with the last three rounds of talks, the participants appeared to be more anxious to find a solution," said Jin Linbo, a professor with the China Institute of International Studies.

"But we still need to wait and see whether such favorable signs would finally lead to progress in the new round of talks," said Jin Canrong, a professor on international politics with the Renmin (People's) University of China.

Source: Xinhua