The talks resumed last Thursday in Beijing amid hopes for progress toward implementing a September 2005 agreement, in which Pyongyang committed itself to halting its nuclear activities in return for economic and security incentives.
According to different sources, the leaders are expected to adopt a joint document in line with China's draft plan of Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament during a final plenary meeting on Tuesday.
The plan proposes closing and sealing North Korean nuclear facilities, including a five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Pyongyang, and the provision of alternative energy sources and economic aid to the impoverished North by the other parties to the talks.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that the participants of the talks, which comprise two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, coordinated a solution that envisions the implementation of the plan in two stages.
Initially, N. Korea will suspend the work at the Yonbyon center not later than 60 days after the conclusion of the current talks and receive 50,000 tons of oil fuel as an alternative energy source. During the second stage, Pyongyang must close down the facility in order to receive economic aid and further supplies of oil fuel that could increase up to 1 million tons per year.
The head of the Russian delegation said Russia stands for destroying the Yongbyon nuclear reactor rather than simply closing it down because the facility would not seriously affect North Korea's energy security.
"We support the suspension of activities [at the Yongbyon center] as a first step, but it would be even better to dismantle it and provide North Korea with alternative energy sources instead," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said.
The negotiators are also discussing Russia's plan to write off North Korea's debt to the former Soviet Union as one of the possible ways to provide the impoverished nation with humanitarian aid, a source at the talks said.
According to the Russian economics ministry, North Korea's ex-Soviet debt is estimated at over $8 billion and is one of the main obstacles to the development of trade between the two countries. Russia and North Korea agreed to hold a meeting of an intergovernmental commission on the issue in March.
The head of South Korean delegation said earlier today that before the completion of the talks the parties will have to coordinate the issue of setting up five working groups to oversee denuclearization efforts on the Korean Peninsula, energy supplies to North Korea, cooperation in the security sphere in Northeast Asia, and relations between North Korea and the United States and Japan.
He also said the leaders of the six nations might not adopt a joint statement but simply announce their decision to continue discussions in the future.
