The Philippines welcomed the recently concluded round of talks between the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States in Beijing but remained cautiously optimistic as the rhetoric between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the US continued to be characterized by a strong difference of opinion.

“China has done a great service to the world by bringing the parties together and promoting peaceful dialogue.  We are hopeful that a peace solution will be eventually achieved but we remain cautiously optimistic of the strong rhetoric that characterizes the exchanges between the DPRK and the US,”  Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F. Ople said.

“We are also thankful that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi has shared with the public the six-point consensus reached by the six parties after the negotiations ended on Friday. These points show that steps are being taken in the right directions,” the Secretary said.

Following were the six consensus points, as reported by news services:

·         ''The parties are all committed to resolving the nuclear issue peacefully through dialogue and all the parties are committed to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and to the creation of lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.

·         The parties all believe that there should be a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula. At the same time, the parties have all become aware of the fact that there is a need to consider and address the concerns of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) in a wide range of areas including its security concerns.

·         The parties have agreed to explore and finalize an overall solution that is fair and reasonable in approach aimed at producing a solution with phased and synchronized, or parallel, implementation, in principle.

·         The parties have agreed not to make any wording or take any action that may escalate the situation or aggravate the situation as long as the talks proceed.

·         All parties believe that we should maintain dialogue, further enhance trust, reduce differences and broaden our common ground.

·         All parties agreed that the six-party talks should continue and the specific date and venue should be decided through diplomatic channels as soon as possible.END.