On February 20, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi met with Joseph DeTrani, the special envoy of US Department of State on Korean Peninsula affairs who is on a special tour to China for consultation.

Wang Yi said that the opportunity for promoting a peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue has come and the upcoming second round of talks will launch discussions on substantive issues. As the host country, China has made considerable preparations for the talks. However, whether we can change opportunity into reality depends on the attitudes of the parties. The Chinese side calls on the parties of the talks to proceed from a larger picture of safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula to grasp the opportunity for peace and send positive signals so as to reduce differences, accumulate consensus, try to identify concrete objectives for the solution of the issue, and make actual steps towards that.

The US side said it remained positive on the next round of talks and hoped that concrete progress can be made at the talks and the talks can continue. To this end, the US was willing to show some flexibility.

Ning Fukui, Ambassador on Korean Peninsula affairs from the Foreign Ministry, held a working consultation with Mr. DeTrani on specific issues on the second round of talks.