The much-heralded six-nation talks in Beijing ended Friday without any specific progress on North Korea's nuclear weapons development. But all parties agreed to resolve the issue peacefully while addressing Pyongyang's security concerns. Japan and North Korea reached no explicit agreement on the abduction problem, either, but left the door open for further talks.
Thus the situation in Northeast Asia remains volatile, nearly 11 months after North Korea admitted that it was pursuing a program to produce atomic bombs through uranium enrichment. Pyongyang escalated tensions by pulling out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and resuming the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
But the very fact that the six countries, including China and Russia, have met for the first time - and agreed to meet again - cannot but raise hope that the nuclear standoff will be resolved peacefully one way or another. What is important, therefore, is to sustain and deepen this emerging process of six-way dialogue.