The Six-Party Talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula will restart in Beijing on Monday, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday in a statement posted on its website.

But an editorial in a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) newspaper said Japan would not be welcome when the talks resume after a 13-month stalemate. It cited two reasons: the sanctions Japan imposed after the DPRK's underground nuclear test on October 9 and a lingering issue that Japan intends to raise again.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Tokyo plans to bring up the DPRK's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and '80s.

The editorial in Rodong Shinmun, the official newspaper of the Korean Workers' Party, said: "Japan is nothing but an impostor, not qualified to take part in the Six-Party Talks.

"Even if they do come to the talks, there will be nothing useful, with them making it difficult to solve the issue and wasting time by bringing to the table irrelevant issues."

In reaction to the announcement about the resumption of talks, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "I think it's good (the schedule for) the Six-Party Talks is set. We must push for progress, be it one step or two, towards the DPRK's abolition of its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes at the talks."

China, which hosts the talks, has insisted the Korean nuclear issue be resolved peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.

But no talks have taken place since November 2005 when the DPRK boycotted the meeting, accusing the United States of imposing financial sanctions against its companies.

A flurry of diplomatic activity has taken place in recent months, especially since the DPRK's nuclear test, which drew opposition from the international community, including China.

At the end of October, chief negotiators from China, the DPRK and the United States held closed-door bilateral and trilateral meetings in Beijing and agreed to resume the talks at a time convenient to the six parties, which also involve the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan.

The ROK hailed the resumption of negotiations and were optimistic. "The government expects substantial progress to be made through the forthcoming talks for the resolution of the DPRK nuclear crisis," ROK Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said in a statement yesterday.

Chinese analysts were cautiously optimistic, calling the resumption of the Six-Party Talks an opportunity to break the current stalemate.

"We can't expect the talks to produce substantive progress as the deep-rooted mistrust between the DPRK and the US cannot disappear overnight," said a researcher of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue at the Development Research Centre of the State Council surname, Li.

Agencies contributed to the story

(China Daily 12/12/2006 page1)