North Korea agrees in principle to take initial steps to dismantle nuclear program

(AP) North Korea agreed in principle Thursday to take initial steps toward dismantling its nuclear programs at the start of international talks seeking the first concrete progress on disarming Pyongyang.

The main U.S. negotiator said talks resumed on a positive note, and that sides were hoping to achieve an agreement on the first steps for the North's disarmament.

"We had a good first day today," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters. "We hope we can achieve some kind of joint statement here."

Unlike the last round of six-nation talks in December, Hill said the countries "were able to make progress on discussing denuclearization."

Negotiators are working to lay out the implementation of a September 2005 agreement in which the North pledged to disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

Hill said a draft agreement expected from the Chinese hosts by Friday morning would detail a "set of actions taken in a finite amount of time." He declined to give specifics, but said the moves would take place in a matter of "single-digit weeks."

Still, Hill remained cautious on prospects for an agreement, saying "the first step of a journey is often the most difficult step."

Pyongyang's envoy had said before the talks started that he was ready to discuss initial steps toward nuclear disarmament.

"We are prepared to discuss first-stage measures," Kim Kye Gwan said on arriving in Beijing for the meeting at a Chinese state guesthouse.

American experts who visited Kim in Pyongyang last week said North Korea would propose a freeze of its main nuclear reactor and a resumption of international inspections in exchange for energy aid and a normalization of relations with Washington.

Kim said Thursday that any moves by North Korea would depend on the U.S. attitude.

"We are going to make a judgment based on whether the United States will give up its hostile policy and come out toward peaceful coexistence," he said, adding that the U.S. was "well aware" of what it had to do.

North Korea had twice boycotted the nuclear talks for more than a year, claiming various U.S. policies show the Bush administration intends to topple its government.

"I'm not either optimistic or pessimistic because there are still many points of confrontation to resolve," Kim said.

Still, his comments marked a change in North Korea's position from the last round of talks in December, when Kim refused to even discuss disarmament and demanded the lifting of U.S. financial restrictions against a Macau bank where North Korea held accounts.

South Korean envoy Chun Yung-woo said all sides had agreed "it is important to reach agreement at this round of talks on first-phase measures."

The lack of any on-the-ground results in disarming North Korea has raised the issue of the credibility of the talks, which involve China, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and the two Koreas.

Since 2003, they have produced only a single joint statement in September 2005 on principles for North Korea to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and pledges that Washington won't seek the regime's ouster.

Chun said earlier Thursday the negotiations were at an "important crossroads" and needed to move beyond words to actions.

"Joint efforts, wisdom and flexibility from all six countries are badly needed now more than any other time," the South Korean said.

The latest nuclear standoff with the North started in late 2002 after Washington accused North Korea of having a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 deal between the two countries. North Korea expelled international nuclear inspectors and restarted its reactor, moves that culminated in the country's first-ever test atomic detonation in October.

Although the U.S. and key North Korean allies China and Russia backed U.N. sanctions in the wake of the nuclear test, Washington has since engaged in a series of diplomatic overtures that have drawn praise from the North.

They included a trip by Hill to Germany last month to meet Kim, along with separate U.S.-North Korean talks on the financial restrictions placed on the Macau bank.

The U.S. accuses Banco Delta Asia of complicity in North Korea's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering, and blacklisting the bank has scared off other financial institutions from dealing with the North for fears of losing access to the U.S. market.

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Associated Press reporters Jae-soon Chang, Alexa Olesen and Hiroko Tabuchi contributed to this report.