North Korea said today that it had reached a "certain agreement" with the United States in talks earlier this week in Berlin and praised the rare direct dialogue between the two bitter foes.
US envoy Christopher Hill and the North's Kim Kye-gwan ended three days of talks last night in the German capital.
But neither side suggested there had been any breakthrough on the communist state's nuclear weapons programme.
"The talks took place from January 16th to 18th in a positive and sincere atmosphere, and a certain agreement was reached there," the North's Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by official KCNA news agency.
"We paid attention to the direct dialogue held by the DPRK and the US in a bid to settle knotty problems in resolving the nuclear issue," he said.
But Mr Hill, arriving in South Korea to brief officials in Seoul, appeared puzzled by the reference to a deal. "I'm sorry, I'm not really sure what he's referring to," Mr Hill told reporters, but added: "We had very useful discussions."
He said the next step would be incorporating the Berlin talks into the recently revived six-country negotiations. These aim to end impoverished North Korea's nuclear weapons programme in exchange for financial support and security guarantees.
"I want to emphasise once again that the negotiations for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula take place at the six-party talks," Mr Hill said. "But we've always felt it useful to have discussions between rounds of six-party talks."
Mr Hill said he hoped the next round of six-party talks would start before the February 18th Lunar New Year. He also said there was a tentative date for talks on the US financial crackdown against North Korea.