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BEIJING : Six-nation disarmament talks are due to wrap up on Thursday amid hopes that North Korea will agree to give a full account of all its nuclear weapons programmes and close them by the end of this year.
The first day of the talks ended Wednesday on an optimistic note with the South Korean envoy reporting that the North had said it was willing to declare and disable all of its nuclear facilities unexpectedly quickly.
"North Korea showed its willingness to declare and disable (its nuclear facilities) within the shortest period of time, within this year, or five to six months," Chun Yung-Woo told reporters.
The talks began after North Korea fulfilled its first obligation of a February six-nation disarmament accord by closing over the weekend its main atomic reactor complex at Yongbyon.
The Yongbyon facility made plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear bombs. However the United States and others believe North Korea has other secret facilities and programmes that can also make atomic weapons.
Under the second phase of the accord, North Korea is required to come clean on all of the nuclear weapons programmes that is has spent decades developing, and then disable them.
Eventually North Korea is required to completely and permanently scrap its nuclear capabilities, in return for a wide range of economic, political and security incentives, as part of the accord.
The United States had entered this week's talks calling for North Korea to "declare and disable" this year.
Still, many observers had been skeptical of that timetable being met considering Pyongyang's history of stalling on the diplomatic front while continuing to pursue a nuclear programme.
The six-nation talks -- grouping China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia -- began in 2003 with the aim of convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
However it failed to stop North Korea from conducting its first atomic test in October last year, and it is widely believed that even while the talks were going on plutonium was still being produced at Yongbyon.
US envoy Christopher Hill gave a cautious assessment of Wednesday's proceedings but also appeared to indicate progress could be made at this round of six-party talks.
"I don't want to get into too many specifics on that but there were good and positive discussions," Hill said on Wednesday night when asked to confirm Chun's comments.
Chun reiterated on Thursday morning ahead of the group meeting that he was confident North Korea would fulfill its pledge to disable and disarm.
"At yesterday's meeting... North Korea showed its intention to make a practical and realistic approach," Chun told reporters.
He said he was confident North Korea "has no intention to drag on proceedings or bring in new and undue demands".
The chief envoys were expected to go into their meeting at 10:00 am (0200 GMT) on Thursday. Hill and Chun said China was expected to release a chairman's statement afterwards detailing the progress made at the two days of talks. - AFP/ch
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