The stalled six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is facing a crucial opportunity to make a breakthrough, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in Beijing on Thursday.

"The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula has achieved key progress through constant efforts by those involved recently...meanwhile, there are still difficulties lying in front of us," Liu told reporters at a regular briefing.

According to reports, seals and surveillance equipment set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been removed from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon, which indicates that DPRK's nuclear facility will no longer be under IAEA's supervision.

"We hope all parties involved will show flexibility, settle the verification of the nuclear declaration at an early date, and push forward the six-party process into a new phase," Liu said.

According to a document agreed last October, the DPRK submitted a declaration about its nuclear activities this June and blew down the nuclear cooling tower in Yongbyon, but the United States has not taken any substantial steps in removing DPRK from its list of "state sponsors of terrorism" as promised.

The DPRK said that it has stopped disabling its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon on August 26. The DPRK Foreign Ministry announced on September 19 that the DPRK intends working to restart its nuclear facility in Yongbyon according to the "action for action principle".

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2008)