US and North Korean diplomats are to hold a rare meeting today at which the United States will offer conditional aid and security guarantees aimed at breaking a deadlock in the nuclear crisis topping the agenda.
The US offer presented at the opening in Beijing yesterday of the third round of six-party talks has produced faint hopes of progress for the first time in the 20-month-old impasse over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Pyongyang has yet to respond, however, and few expect a breakthrough. Negotiators from North and South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan held a second day of closed-door talks in Beijing and broke up for bilateral meetings in the afternoon.
US and North Korean negotiators would meet on the sidelines, a South Korean diplomat told reporters. Similar encounters at the two previous rounds of talks have yielded little.
The six-way talks are scheduled to end on Saturday. Completing a policy reversal first mooted early this year, Washington has presented a plan to allow other nations to supply energy aid and said it might consider giving North Korea assurances that it would not be attacked.
In return, the communist state would have three months to provide a full listing of its nuclear activities, disable some dangerous materials and allow monitoring.