A fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament will begin in Beijing on July 26, China said Tuesday, although analysts are sceptical significant progress will be made. Foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan made the announcement via Xinhua news agency after a flurry of diplomacy but declined to say how long they would last.
In previous rounds, the negotiations have spanned three days before ending inconclusively.
"The decision to restart the six-party talks was made through consultations with all relevant parties," Kong said of the talks that involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Pyongyang broke off the discussions in June 2004, rejecting a US offer then on the table which required an up-front pledge to dismantle all nuclear programs before getting energy and other assistance.
The North instead wanted a step-by-step approach, fearing it could come under attack by the United States.
But it made a surprise announcement earlier this month that it would again start talking, days before South Korea offered to build new power lines across the border and provide electricity to the North.
South Korea also pledged 500,000 tonnes of rice to the starving and isolated nation.
A Japanese newspaper said Tuesday that during the talks Tokyo will demand that Pyongyang disclose all details of its nuclear program and scrap all nuclear development, including for peaceful purposes.
Japan will also ask North Korea to allow the other countries to confirm in a verifiable manner that it has frozen its nuclear development program, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
The six-party talks began in August 2003, nearly a year after Pyongyang allegedly told US officials it was running a uranium enrichment program. It has since claimed it has nuclear bombs.
In Seoul, South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-Hyung said his government had been informed by Beijing that the talks will take place on Tuesday next week, but also declined to say how long they would last.
"We will play a positive and active role in the upcoming talks so that tangible progress can be made," Lee said.
The United States has made clear it wants to see concrete action next week, with a senior administration official saying it was no longer time to "talk for talk's sake."
However, the official stopped short of saying the upcoming round would be the last attempt before Washington seeks UN sanctions against the Stalinist regime, a move opposed by China and South Korea.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il told Chinese presidential envoy Tang Jiaxuan last week he was looking forward to "positive progress", although analysts say little will be achieved unless the US softens its stance. "What North Korea really wants is improved relations with the United States. Its goal is not to have nuclear weapons, but to use nuclear weapons as a chip to bargain with the United States," said Jin Jingyi, an academic at Beijing University.
"Without improved relations with the United States, it can't be a normal member of the international community. It can't get funds from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, or technology from South Korea."
But observers said they did not have high expectations for this round as it could take several rounds before any significant progress can be seen.
"If the total, verifiable end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program lies at the end of a 100-mile journey, the next round of talks won't cover more than a few miles," said an analyst who did not want to be named.