CHINA: After months of threats and rhetoric, the US and North Korea sat down in Beijing yesterday for nuclear crisis talks with the communist state's neighbours. The two delegations even found time for a bilateral meeting on the side.
There was no sign of any early diplomatic progress. One Japanese press report said the US had rejected North Korea's key precondition, that the two countries should sign a non-aggression treaty.
South Korea said the US Assistant Secretary of State, Mr James Kelly, held informal talks with the Deputy Foreign Minister of North Korea, Mr Kim Yong-il.
However, by the end of the day, Russia (which, like China, has been a traditional friend of the reclusive and impoverished North) was talking about an impasse.
"So far, the countries have put forward a number of preliminary demands regarding each other which are blocking the development of these talks," said the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Losyukov, quoted by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.
China, which is hosting the talks, put a more positive spin on the first day, describing it as a success.
"I heard that the talks this morning and this afternoon were very successful," its Foreign Minister, Mr Li Zhaoxing, told delegates attending a reception after the conclusion of the day's talks.
He continued: "I congratulate you. This also implies everybody reached an important consensus, and . . . everybody hopes the Korean peninsula will be stable, peaceful and denuclearised."
China appealed for restraint before the six countries took their places at a specially-chosen hexagonal table in Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guest House.
North Korea reminded the world in an unusually mild newspaper editorial of its core demand for a US security guarantee. But Tass, quoting a source, said the North's chief delegate told the meeting that it neither had nuclear weapons nor plans to develop them, but would develop "more powerful deterrence" if its demands were not met.
Japan, which is within range of North Korean aircraft and missiles, insisted that Pyongyang must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
Mr Wi Sung-lac, deputy head of the South Korean delegation, said the heads of the US and North Korean delegations had found time to talk.
Before the main talks began, China's Xinhua news agency appealed for all sides to show restraint. "Piling up pressure unilaterally or taking hardline measures will not help to solve the nuclear issue," it said.