SEOUL: The Republic of Korea (ROK)'s President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday he expects a successful second round of talks on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear ambitions.

In Tokyo, US envoy James Kelly said those follow-on talks to August's first six-way meeting in Beijing could possibly be in November, although no date had been fixed.

Roh indicated the timetable and agenda could be firming up, after intense diplomacy at the United Nations and elsewhere to resolve the issue.

"I expect that the second round of talks will be held in due time and will produce good results," Roh told a military parade at Sungnam airbase outside Seoul.

The DPRK said on Tuesday it had not promised to attend more talks with China, Japan, Russia, the ROK and the United States. The careful wording left open the possibility Pyongyang would show up but made clear it doubted the value of the talks.

Further reinforcing the view among diplomats that movement could come soon, a ROK newspaper reported a DPRK negotiator as saying expressions of disinterest in fresh talks did not mean Pyongyang would reject them.

ROK Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan told a briefing in Seoul the United States was working hard to find ways to ease the DPRK's security concerns.

"I don't interpret any such comments (by the DPRK) as meaning they will not accept a second round of talks," he said.

In Tokyo, Kelly, who is assistant secretary of state and Washington's pointman on the DPRK nuclear issue, said the United States and its allies were urging Pyongyang to return to the table. Asked if talks might be held in November, he said: "It's a possibility."

The South's Yonhap news agency quoted Seoul's ambassador to the United States, Han Seung-joo, as telling ROK parliamentarians in Washington he hoped the next talks would take place in October or no later than November.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 10/02/2003 page1)