By Park Song-wu
Korea Times Correspondent


BEIJING _ Six delegations held a series of bilateral meetings on Monday to check whether their concerns are reflected in the second draft statement of principles, which China presented overnight.

``Overnight, there was the second draft that the Chinese host put together,’’ U.S. top envoy Christopher Hill told reporters. ``We are going to see what comments we have in common and on what points we differ.’’

The second draft came after some of the participating countries _ the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan _ had expressed dissatisfaction with the content of the first draft, which was circulated also by China on Saturday, Seoul officials said.

Hill said there is still ``a lot of language’’ in the second draft containing ``a lot of differences.’’ ``There are paragraphs that need to be worded,’’ he said. But the Washington delegate said the revised draft reflected ``all sides’ modifications.’’

Later in the day, six countries convened a deputy-level meeting to check whether the modified version is acceptable to every party. Each country had a series of bilateral meetings before the working-level talks.

``All the six countries tried to enhance understanding of each other’s differences by holding such meetings,’’ a Seoul official said, requesting not to be named. ``We also explained our stance in detail to make real progress in the talks.’’

Hill estimated South Korea’s offer of electricity aid to North Korea highly, describing it as a ``very creative proposal.’’ He also anticipated that the offer will find its way into the final document of the principles.

``The electricity offer is of course in the draft agreement as it should be because it’s an offer I can be pretty certain will be in the final draft as well,’’ he said. ``The U.S. has been very supportive and publicly so about (South Korea’s) very significant proposal to provide electricity.’’

All participants, including North Korea, openly say that they are devoted to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. But Hill said there are still many differences over how to achieve the goal.

``Everything is a problem until everything is solved,’’ he said. ``It’s one of the most frustrating things one can imagine. The host (China) has a very tough job and that is to take all sides and reflect them.’’

No date has been set to round up this round of talks, the fourth of its kind, which marked its seventh day on Monday, the longest ever. Three previous rounds lasted three or four days each.

im@koreatimes.co.kr