BEIJING, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - Officials in Moscow are hoping for a breakthrough in the upcoming fifth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev, the lead negotiator for Russia at the talks, which also involve South Korea, China, Japan and the United States, said that at the fifth round, opening November 9, the sides would try to hammer out practical steps to implement the agreement reached during the previous round in September.
In the Sept. 19 agreement, North Korea committed itself to dismantling its nuclear program and returning to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in exchange for the other signatories' non-aggression guarantees and pledges to promote economic cooperation in energy, trade, and investment and to help build nuclear plants for civilian use, including a light-water reactor.
