South Korea: disarmament talks will be held as planned

South Korea's foreign minister said Friday that international disarmament talks with North Korea will resume next week as planned, despite no exact date having been set for the deadlocked negotiations to reconvene.

"The talks will reopen next week, although we've not yet fixed the exact date," Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Seoul upon returning from a U.S. trip, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The arms talks were suspended earlier this month after 13 days of meetings where the six negotiating countries failed to agree on a basic statement of principles to guide future negotiations. China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas agreed to resume the talks sometime the week of Aug. 29.

Pravra.ru reminds, that among the disputes holding up the talks are North Korea's desire that it still be able to have a "peaceful" nuclear program after it abandons its atomic weapons, along with the timing of the rewards Pyongyang will receive as it dismantles its weapons programs.