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Six parties reach "principled consensus" on DPRK nuclear verification (North Korea, China)

Negotiators in the six-party talks on the Korean peninsula nuclear issue reached a "principled consensus" here on Friday on verifying the declaration of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a Chinese official said Friday.

The top negotiators discussed the specific principles of setting up a verification and inspection mechanism, as well as economic and energy aid to the DPRK, the Chinese delegation's spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

"The six parties achieved some progress on the verification mechanism, reaching a principled consensus," Qin said, without elaborating. "The specific consensus will be announced very soon."

Despite different interests, concerns and stances, the parties were striving for issuing a joint document at the end of this round of discussion, Qin said.

He said the top negotiators' meeting, which started Thursday afternoon, went smoothly with "sound atmosphere" and "high efficiency."

The heads of delegations meeting would continue Saturday morning, Qin said. "We have made some progress so far...hope we could see a document contain consensus of all parties and measures of next phase when the meeting conclude."

The parties were trying to finish the meeting on Saturday as scheduled, Qin said. "Each delegation is working toward that goal, not only to end tomorrow but to end with results."

On Friday's meeting, negotiators also exchanged views on establishing the peace and security mechanism in northeast Asia.

Besides, the working groups of denuclearization and economic and energy aid held a meeting respectively, mapping out the measures to implement the consensus reached by heads of delegations, Qin said.

The current meeting, held after a nine-month stalemate, came after the DPRK handed over the long-awaited nuclear declaration list late June and then blew up a cooling tower in its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

The six-party talks, launched in 2003, included China, the United States, DPRK, Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.

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