On April 1, 2004, Vice Minister Wang Yi met with Joseph R. DeTrani, US State Department Special Envoy on Korean Affairs, who was here in China for work-level consultations. The two sides made positive remarks on the progress made during the second round of the six-party talks and expressed willingness to launch the working group as soon as possible according to the consensus reached during the second round of talks so as to make preparations for the third round of talks.

Earlier, Ning Fukui, Ambassador on Korean Peninsula Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry held work-level consultations with Mr. DeTrani on the launch of the working group.