Crisis talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programme reopened under a cloud of uncertainty on Tuesday as Pyongyang insisted on its right to atomic energy in the face of US opposition.
Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said North Korea's position did "seem to be evolving a little", but there had been no real progress since the six countries involved in the negotiations last met in Beijing five weeks ago.
China, Russia, Japan, the United States and the two Koreas agree in principle to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, but Pyongyang and the United States - in particular - are at odds over how to reach that goal.
Washington is demanding that the reclusive communist state dismantle all nuclear programmes completely, verifiably and irreversibly, after which it could expect energy aid and security guarantees. North Korea insists on the right to a civilian nuclear programme.
"This right is neither awarded nor needs to be approved by others," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan was quoted as saying by Xinhua, China's official news agency, ahead of the talks.
Still, he said, Pyongyang aimed for a nuclear-free peninsula through dialogue and pledged the North would take a "sincere attitude" and show "flexibility when necessary".
Hill said after a first meeting of the negotiators on Tuesday that no "hard deadline" had been set for the end of this, the fourth round of talks since 2003, but voiced confidence that it could be wrapped up in days rather than weeks.
"We ... can't say really that there is progress," he told reporters in the Chinese capital."Although I must tell you their position does seem to be evolving a little, and we will have a much better idea about it tonight or tomorrow."
"The fundamental question is whether the DPRK (North Korea) is prepared to abandon its nuclear programmes."
The crisis erupted in October 2002 after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret programme to enrich uranium, used to make atomic weapons, in violation of a 1994 agreement.
North Korea denied the claim, and responded by throwing out UN weapons inspectors and then quitting the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Last February, it said it had nuclear bombs.
North Korea again denied on Tuesday that it had pursued the enrichment of uranium.
"Its (the United States') false propaganda, launched just before the second phase of the fourth round of the six-party talks, cannot be construed otherwise than a very insolent act seeking a sinister political purpose," its state mouthpiece said.
Impoverished North Korea has been branded by Washington part of an "axis of evil", along with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
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