BEIJING, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- North and South Korean envoys are to meet in Beijing, signaling a possible resumption of the stalled six-party talks on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea's senior nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac said he was optimistic about a "fruitful result" from his talks with Ri Yong Ho, North Korea's envoy.
He would focus on how to end Pyongyang's nuclear program but he would also include other issues.
"Rather than discussing a specific program, I plan to talk about making overall progress toward denuclearization," he said.
The two envoys last met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in July. It was their first meeting since the collapse two years ago of the six-party talks initiated in 2003.
A South Korean official told Yonhap News Agency that Wi would be "open and flexible" with Ri but he would stick with South Korea's precondition for resumption of the talks -- the North must allow verification that it has halted its nuclear program.
For his part, Ri likely would reiterate the North's stance that denuclearization is accompanied by aid for its ailing economy.
The envoys will meet during this week's low-key international seminar to commemorate the September 2005 signing of a joint denuclearization statement by the six nations -- North and South Korea, China, Russia, United States and Japan.
More than 20 officials and scholars from the six countries, as well as Australia and Singapore, are attending the gathering.
China urged all the countries to "create conditions" for restarting the talks, a report by China's news agency Xinhua said.
"We are happy to see that there are a new series of positive interactions between the parties concerned with the resumption of the six-party talks," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in a speech to the seminar.
"All the parties concerned should seize these opportunities, maintain the momentum of dialogue, boost mutual trust and improve relations with each other's concerns in mind to create conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks," he said.
But he also warned results wouldn't be obtained overnight.
Under the 2005 joint statement, North Korea pledged to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and political incentives, including financial and food aid.
However, North Korea walked out of the talks in 2009 to protest U.N. sanctions over its nuclear testing. There followed two years of deteriorating relations between Seoul and Pyongyang that threatened to spill over into armed conflict.
South Korea has maintained it wants Pyongyang to apologize for the March 2010 sinking of its naval patrol vessel the 1,200-ton Cheonan in which 46 sailors died.
The blast was strong enough to break the ship in half. It had to be salvaged from the disputed shallow waters off the west coast near the 1953 demarcation line that created the two Koreas after three years of fighting.
An international investigating team said it had found strong evidence that the Cheonan was sunk by a torpedo of North Korean manufacture and fired by a small to mid-size submarine.
Pyongyang continues to deny any involvement.
Seoul also wants an apology from North Korea for shelling a military base and town on Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010 that killed four people.
