The United States is ready to seek a negotiated settlement at multilateral talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes, the top US negotiator to the discussions said on Monday.
The talks, resuming on Tuesday in Beijing, went into recess on August 7 after the six countries had failed to reach agreement even on a statement of principles during 13 days of discussions.
A key stumbling block then between the parties - the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States - was whether the North should be allowed to have a civilian nuclear programme.
"One should not assume that the outstanding problems all have to do with the issue of so-called peaceful use or civilian use," said Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for Asia and Pacific affairs.
"I would be careful not to focus on any one aspect of it at this point," he said.
Hill made the comments after meeting South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.
There have been signs of some policy divisions, particularly after Chung said that North Korea had a right to a peaceful nuclear programme. US officials have expressed concern about the North having any sort of nuclear programme, saying the communist state could use a civilian programme to develop weapons.
Hill said after his meeting with Chung that the United States and South Korea were on the same page when it came to the peaceful nuclear programme issue.
POWER PLAY Hill, who heads to Beijing on Tuesday, said last week that North Korea, which is battling energy shortages, should seriously consider South Korea's sweetener offer to supply it with electricity about equal to its own output once it has dismantled its nuclear weapons programmes.
"They (the South Koreans) have a rather ambitious and rather important conventional energy proposal, which will, within two and half to three years, begin lighting up DPRK towns, cities and villages," Hill told reporters.
The North's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Hill said the players had laid many of their cards on the table and the upcoming discussions should move at a relatively fast pace compared to the previous marathon session.
"They (the North Koreans) know our position. They know our approach. It shouldn't take as long as last time," Hill said.
China, however, tempered expectations of any quick resolution of the crisis, saying the six-party process would be long and a breakthrough hard to achieve.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told visiting reporters on Monday the major impediment to progress remained a lack of trust between Washington and Pyongyang.
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