Japan does not expect any major breakthrough in a fresh round of six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programmes to be held in Beijing later this month, a senior Japanese government official said on Wednesday.
After weeks of uncertainty, North Korea announced on Tuesday that talks with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia would resume on February 25.
"No one believes the issue will be resolved at the next round of six-party talks alone," the Japanese official said on condition of anonymity. "It's not easy. It's a difficult issue."
The first round of talks took place in August and made no real progress. North Korea subsequently offered to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for energy aid and diplomatic recognition from the United States as a first step towards resolving the dispute.
The United States wants North Korea to commit by the end of the next round to dismantling any nuclear arms programmes.
Washington has offered then to lay out in detail what sort of security guarantees it might give the state President George W. Bush called part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.
The Japanese official doubted North Korea would make any big policy shift and agree to scrap its nuclear arms programme.
"We don't have optimistic expectations... But it is important to make efforts to resolve the issue," he said.
The crisis erupted in October 2002 when US officials reported that North Korea had told them it was pursuing a clandestine nuclear arms programme.
The Japanese official said Tokyo wanted talks with North Korea on bilateral issues on the sidelines of the meeting.
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