The United States has ruled out the formal bilateral meetings demanded by North Korea as six-nation talks to end a 10-month-old nuclear crisis continue in Beijing.
After months of threats and rhetoric, the United States and North Korea joined four northeast Asian neighbours today for the second of three days of talks on the nuclear programme of the communist state.
The talks among the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China are seen as just the first in a series of negotiations. Even agreement to meet again would likely be hailed as a sign of success in handling Pyongyang's apparent desire to become a nuclear power that triggered the standoff.
The first day saw US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il sit together on a sofa during a coffee break - the first such conversation in four months.
North Korea was expected to respond to calls by the United States, Japan and other parties that it scrap its nuclear programme, and may have approached Washington with a new proposal, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.
In a sign of the difficulties ahead, the United States has already rejected North Korea's fundamental demand that the two sign a non-aggression treaty.
Analysts expect the talks to proceed towards the timing of sequenced demands to encompass aid to impoverished North Korea from neighbours Japan and South Korea while Washington finds a formula to calm Pyongyang's fears of US hostile intentions.
The United States, which says Pyongyang may already have one or two nuclear weapons, is looking initially for a commitment that Pyongyang will scrap its programme. North Korea wants security guarantees before dismantling.
US President George W. Bush last year lumped North Korea in an "axis of evil" with pre-war Iraq and Iran, infuriating North Korea's reclusive leader, Mr Kim Jong-il.
Japan, within range of North Korean missiles and the onlycountry to have suffered a nuclear attack, has insistedPyongyang must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.Tokyo also wants issues such as Pyongyang's missile programme and its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to beaddressed.