Foreign minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Paek Nam-sun had said in a meeting that the second phase of the fourth round six-party talks scheduled in the week that starts on August 29 would be postponed due to "lack of trust", according to visiting Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon in Pyongyang on August 28.

The Thai foreign minister said that Paek Nam-sun told him at the meeting on August 28 that the DPRK government believed the resumption should be put off at least until mid-September or some day in September.

Meanwhile, Paek Nam-sun stressed that if trust could be established in the six-party talks, DPRK is willing to stop its nuclear weapon plan and rejoin the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The fourth round of six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula entered a recess on August 7 after 13-day meetings and was scheduled to resume this week. The parties concerned are conducting diplomatic negotiations on a specific date for the resumption. Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of Korean Workers Party, published a commentary on August 27 accusing US President Bush of unsettling the process of peaceful solution of the nuclear issue with the "DPRK human rights envoy" and creating obstacles to the six-party talks.

By People's Daily Online