Delegations to the second round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue are to arrive in Beijing separately starting from Monday morning.  

The Russian delegation will be the first to arrive here Monday morning.

The meeting, involving delegates from China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korean (ROK), Russia and Japan, was set to begin since Wednesday.

The talks will be held in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in central Beijing, which also witnessed the first round six-party talks last August.

Heads of the delegations are Wang Yi, Chinese vice foreign minister, Kim Kye-gwan, deputy foreign minister of the DPRK, Mitoji Yabunaka, director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Lee Soo-Hyuck, the ROK's deputy minister of foreign affairs and trade, Alexander Losiukov, Russian deputy foreign minister, and James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs of the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2004)