China believes new round of six-party talks to be held at "ripe" time

BEIJING, Jan 15 (Xinhua) -- China believes the new round of six-party talks will be held at a "ripe time," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu at a regular press conference here Tuesday.

She said the current progress of six-party talks is hard-won. China hopes all sides continue their efforts to realize various agreements in a comprehensive and balanced way to push forward the denuclearization on the Korean peninsular.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and top U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill met in Beijing last week to discuss the current situation of the talks as well as the resumption of the new round.

The last round of talks ended last October with an agreement saying the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed to disable all its existing nuclear facilities and provide a complete and correct declaration of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007. The DPRK missed the deadline to list all its nuclear programs.

The six-party talks, which includes China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia, aims at resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsular.