By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

Pyongyang has expressed a willingness to freeze its nuclear weapons programs and eventually dismantle them altogether in return for a package of incentives, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday as quoted by Japan’s Kyodo News Agency.

Wang, China’s chief delegate to the upcoming six-way nuclear talks, told a visiting Japanese diplomat that North Korea is ready to ``freeze all its nuclear activities’’ on the premise of an ultimate dismantlement. The talks open on Wednesday in Beijing.

In a related development, South Korea’s Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, who will lead Seoul’s delegation, said he will exert his best efforts and patience to ensure the upcoming talks see significant results.

``We will present more concrete solutions to the thorny issue of the security guarantee for the North, while attaching three conditions on the North’s proposal of a nuclear freeze.’’

Lee stressed the nuclear freeze alone would not be accepted by other countries and it would be significant only if it was the first step to an ultimate dismantling of all nuclear projects.

The Seoul delegation will fly to Beijing this morning to join the United States, North Korea, Japan, Russia and host China.

President Roh Moo-hyun said he expected North Korea to play a ``card of concession’’ in the six-party nuclear talks.

``We should take a step forward that could save each other’s face by reciprocating such concessions,’’ Roh said during a meeting at Chong Wa Dae with Jeffrey Jones, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

``Though conditional, the North has said several times that it could give up its nuclear ambitions if its demands were met,’’ he said. ``The problem is to what extent and in what order should the demands be anticipated. The six-party talks will go well.’’

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr