The North Korean delegation arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning for the fifth round of six-party talks aiming at resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

 

North Korea's chief delegate Kim Gye-gwan greeted reporters at the Beijing airport but didn't comment on the talks.

 

"The six-party talks already have a clear direction; they are like a beacon guiding the six parties toward progress," Kim, also North Korea's vice foreign minister, told Xinhua at Pyongyang's Sun-an Airport before departure earlier Tuesday morning.

 

"But that beacon at present is far away and moreover the mist on the ocean is thick and sometimes it blurs the beacon," Kim said.

 

However, he said, all the parties involved could pool their wisdom and work together for further progress.

 

When President Hu Jintao visited Pyongyang in late October, North Korean top leader Kim Jong-il said that his country will attend the fifth round of nuclear talks as it has promised.

 

Beside the North Korean delegation, delegates from South Korea and Russia have also arrived for the negotiation. The delegations of Japan and the US are expected to come later Tuesday.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2005)