US sees progress after North Korea nuclear talks

A US official on Friday said talks with North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme made "a little bit of progress" but no breakthrough, according to dpa. "We will weigh up the results of these talks and see where it leads us," said Glyn Davies, the US special envoy for North Korea policy. Talks on Thursday and Friday were "serious and substantive" and had made "a little bit of progress," Davies told reporters. US officials in Washington would "evaluate what it was that the North Koreans had to say to us," he said. Davies said an "important part" of the evalution would be to consult the other four nations - South Korea, China, Japan and Russia - involved in a stalled six-party process to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear programme. The three sessions of the talks, which lasted a total of more than eight hours, were the first talks between the two nations since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in December. Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, who led the North Korean delegation, also said Thursday's talks were "positive," South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Davies said the two sides "talked about all of the issues that releate to denuclearization," but declined to give details of the issues. Before the talks, he said the United States wanted to use them to find out if the new North Korean leadership under Kim Jong Il's son Kim Jong Un was prepared to fulfil the country's promises to end its nuclear weapons programme under a 2005 agreement between the six nations involved in the talks. On Friday, he said there appeared to be "no dramtic differences" in North Korea's approach and position in the talks since the two previous bilateral meetings in New York in July and Geneva in October. Host nation China is keen to restart the six-party negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear programme, which have been stalled since the end of 2008.