Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday that his country will do its best to achieve "good results" at the upcoming six-party talks in Beijing.    

"The circumstance of the talks is better than the previous one, and we hope that we can cooperate closely with China and Russia," Kim said at the Sunan airport before leaving for the Chinese capital at the head of a delegation to attend the talks scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

However, he said, "The talks will be difficult."

The official also said the issue of the abduction of Japanese should not be on the agenda of the talks and he asked the Japanese side not to take "hasty action."

The DPRK had clarified its positions on the issue when a Japanese Foreign Ministry delegation visited his country earlier this month, the official added.

The DPRK admitted at a summit meeting in 2002 that it abducted 13 Japanese in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

"We appreciate the efforts made by the Chinese side. We will do our best to produce good results at the talks," he told Wu Donghe, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.

Several Russian and Chinese diplomats including Wu went to the airport to see Kim and his entourage off at the airport.

The proposal put forward by the DPRK on the issue accords with US interests, Kim said, noting that if the United States changes its policies, the nuclear issue can be resolved.

The second round of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue involves delegates from China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korean (ROK), Russia and Japan.

The talks will be held in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in central Beijing, which also witnessed the first round of the 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, ROK deputy minister of foreign affairs and trade; Alexander Losiukov, Russian deputy foreign minister; and James Kelly, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)