China urges end to 'cold war' with North Korea

China today urged all countries involved in six-nation talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programme to work harder and to use the talks as an opportunity to end the “cold war state” on the Korean peninsula.

“Parties concerned have paid enormous prices for the cold war state in the Korean peninsula, which has lasted for about half a century,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Dai made his comments at a dinner attended by envoys from all of the talks’ the six countries – China, the two Koreas, the US, Japan and Russia. “It’s time to end that state.”

The talks in Beijing have been deadlocked over whether the North should have the right to a civilian nuclear energy programme, and host China has been trying to push the talks forward.

Yesterday, China tabled a document stating that North Korea would retain the right to a civilian nuclear programme after abandoning its weapons, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said.

Dai was quoted as saying an agreement on the current draft – the fifth so far during this round – was “the most realistic scenario for the relevant parties to reach an accord.”

Negotiators were meant to consider the document and consent to it by this afternoon but an unspecified number of parties could not agree to it, forcing talks to continue into tomorrow, Xinhua reported.

“We cannot but keep marching forward instead of backward, and there will be no way out with retreat,” Dai was quoted as saying.