Talks aimed at bringing lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula ended yesterday with an agreement to return to Geneva next March, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affairs said.
Mr Stanley Roth told a news conference after two days of talks ended in Geneva the session had been a "successful" start to the negotiating process aimed at replacing the armistice with a formal peace treaty.
"The next plenary session will convene on March 16th in Geneva," said Mr Roth, who read a brief joint statement. "I'd expect the session to go for a matter of some days."
The four-way talks between North and South Korea and their respective Korean war allies, China and the United States, were the first formal negotiations involving all the key participants since the three-year conflict on the peninsula ended in 1953.
Mr Roth described the atmosphere of the talks as "productive".
The joint statement said an ad hoc committee would meet in mid-February in Beijing to prepare recommendations.
Mr Roth and the Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, took part in the meeting with the North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Kim Gyegwan, and South Korea's ambassador to France, Mr Lee Seeyoung.
Mr Lee said he considered the Geneva negotiations "a success because we agreed to meet again".
Progress is expected to be painstaking in the negotiations, which officials say may take years to end nearly half a century of tension on the last major Cold War frontier.
Mr Moon Moohong, South Korea's deputy minister for national reconciliation, said no agenda had been set for the next round of talks.
The agenda in Geneva was also left vague to allow the teams to get to know each other and become familiar with the format of the negotiations.
North Korea decided to come to the bargaining table only after lengthy preparatory discussions, which took place in New York and finally reached agreement last month.