NEW YORK / BEIJING - Senior diplomats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States met on Thursday in New York for a two-day "exploratory" talk on Pyongyang's willingness to resume negotiations over its nuclear program.

Stephen Bosworth, the US special envoy to the DPRK, was in discussions with Kim Kye-gwan, the DPRK's vice-foreign minister, at the US Mission to the United Nations.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the talks were exploratory and Washington aimed to gauge Pyongyang's willingness to "take concrete steps" to re-engage in aid-for-disarmament negotiations.

"We're quite clear, broadly, on what we're looking for, which is for North Korea (the DPRK) to live up to its commitments. It needs to take concrete steps toward denuclearization," Toner said during a news briefing in Washington.

Jonathan Pollack, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution - a think tank in Washington DC - said he was not optimistic about the talks because the US and the DPRK have approached these talks with very different expectations.

"Some form of contact here was seen as useful. But the fundamental challenge here is we have been here before. This is not the first time that we have faced this kind of situation," Pollack said.

"North Korea has to weigh whether or not it makes concessions or gives indications of a genuine willingness to shift its stance and shift its activities if it values enough some kind of negotiation with the US and with others. But the US will proceed very carefully here if they are to justify the resumption of some kind of more regular diplomatic contact here," Pollack told China Daily.

Some experts in Beijing, however, are more optimistic about the New York meeting, arguing that this may have some positive effect on the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, which has been stalled since late 2008.

Liu Jiangyong, an expert on East Asia studies at Tsinghua University, said the meeting could help ease tensions.

"The DPRK wants to improve its relations with the US and the meeting is part of the DPRK's efforts to that end," Liu told China Daily.

Liu also pointed out that the meeting is not accidental. During the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Forum last week in Bali, Indonesia, the US and the DPRK engaged in dialogue for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

However, Piao Jianyi, director of the Center of Korean Peninsula Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said uncertainty still exists for resuming the Six-Party Talks, which also includes China, Japan, Russia and the Republic of Korea.

He said the US is still testing whether the DPRK is ready for the resumption of the talks or not. If the two sides can not reach an agreement, relations between the US and the DPRK will return to square one, Piao said.

"In general, it is up to the US and China to push for the Six-Party Talks. We will wait and see how the meeting unfolds," Piao told China Daily.

As the talks started in New York, neither side commented publicly on the meeting, which may carry diplomatic risks for each.

The US State Department released a brief statement, indicating that the first day of discussions "have been serious and businesslike".

"We look forward to continuing our meetings tomorrow," it said.

The DPRK quit the Six-Party Talks after the country's 2009 nuclear test was met with UN Security Council sanctions.

"I think we should all be prepared to withhold judgment (on the New York meeting). The only question is whether or not both sides saw a basis where there was a sufficient narrowing of differences that they could proceed ahead with other activities and talks including, hypothetically, a resumption of the Six-Party Talks," Pollack said.

Reuters contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 07/30/2011 page8)