US, NKorea in first nuclear talks since Kim death

BEIJING — Amid cautious optimism, U.S. and North Korean envoys met Thursday for their first talks on dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programs since the death of the country's longtime leader Kim Jong Il.

The discussions will be closely watched for signs of a more cooperative approach from North Korea, which stands to gain food aid, economic help, and diplomatic concessions in return for taking steps to end its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

The countries were on the verge of a deal to have Washington provide food if Pyongyang suspends its uranium enrichment program when the agreement was upended by Kim's Dec. 17 death.

"Today is, as we say, 'game day.' We will have an opportunity to meet with First Vice Foreign Minister Kim and his team," U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said before the start of morning talks with Kim Kye Gwan at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing.

The two will hold a second session Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Embassy.

The talks in Beijing, the third round since July, are ostensibly aimed at restarting wider six-nation disarmament negotiations that also involve China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Pyongyang walked away from those talks in 2009 and later exploded its second nuclear device.

Additional steps may still be needed before a resumption of the six-nation talks. The North may first request food shipments, while the U.S. and its allies want assurances Pyongyang is committed to making progress on past nuclear commitments.

The United States has also said that better ties between North Korea and U.S. ally South Korea are crucial. North Korea has rejected South Korean offers to talk in recent weeks, and animosity between the rivals still lingers from violence in 2010: a North Korean artillery attack in November killed four South Koreans on a front-line island, and Seoul blames North Korea for the sinking of a warship that killed 46 sailors earlier that year. Pyongyang denies responsibility for the sinking.

Davies said it was a good sign that North Korea had agreed to re-enter talks so soon after the Kim's death amid a transfer of power to his young son, Kim Jong Un, and a coterie of advisers.

Davies said a key point was to see if North Korea was willing to fulfill obligations made in a joint statement in September 2005, which committed North Korea to abandoning its nuclear program in exchange for aid and pledges that Washington wouldn't seek the regime's ouster.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington that the United States was "cautiously optimistic" about the talks.