DAR AL HARB - NORTH KOREA / UNITED STATES: TALKS RESUME

Korean nuclear talks resume

Talks on winding up North Korea's nuclear weapons programme resume on today with Pyongyang pressing the United States to "abandon its hostile policy".

Envoys from North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China were due to gather at a secluded compound in western Beijing to discuss how to nudge forward a 2005 statement offering North Korea economic and security concessions in return for abandoning nuclear weapons capabilities.

Top US envoy Christopher Hill said that after years of stop-start six-party talks, the latest session in Beijing would grapple with specifics.

"I don't want to tell you what aspects of the September '05 agreement we're trying to get implemented, except to say that when we do get a set of actions - if we do - it will be widely seen as a very solid, positive step toward implementation," Mr Hill told reporters.

North Korea's chief negotiator, Kim Kye-kwan, said the United States needed to show goodwill to make a deal possible.

"We are prepared to discuss the initial steps, but the judgement should be based on whether the United States will come forward and abandon its hostile policy against us and co-exist peacefully," Mr Kim said on arriving in Beijing.

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