South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has said that he was confident the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula can be resolved through dialogue.

 

"Neither North Korea nor US wants to continue with this problem and conflict, or to let the conflict develop into a confrontation, and nor are they in a situation in which they can handle such a conflict," Roh was quoted as saying in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital, by South Korean Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday.

 

"This is why I believe this problem is headed toward a solution," Roh said at the press conference after he held summit talks with leaders of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

 

Eight nations -- Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, ElSalvador, Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic -- make up SICA. The last South Korean-SICA summit was held in 1996.

 

Roh, visiting the Costa Rican capital ahead of his trip to US, was referring to the six-party talks which will be resumed in Beijing to address North Korea's nuclear weapons development.

 

The fourth round of the six-party talks, which involved China, North Korea, US, Russia, South Korea and Japan, will be resumed Tuesday afternoon following a recess in early August.

 

The US top nuclear negotiator to the talks Christopher Hill arrived in Seoul late Monday for closed-door discussions with South Korean officials over the nuclear issue. The content of the discussions were not known.

 

Meanwhile, the South Korean delegation, led by South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, and Hill left Seoul for Beijing earlier Tuesday aboard the same flight.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2005)