BEIJING - Diplomats from the United States, North Korea and four other nations began low-level talks Monday on the North's nuclear program, amid warnings by host China against hoping for any major breakthrough.
The two days of so-called "working-level" talks are meant to help create an agenda for a third round of high-level talks due to start Wednesday. In addition to China, other participants include South Korea, Japan and Russia.
The high-level talks would be the third time the nations have met in an attempt to end the dispute that began in late 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of pursuing nuclear weapons development in violation of a 1994 agreement.
"The expectations for these negotiations should be rational and realistic," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said last week. "In the process of settling this huge issue, difficulties and challenges still lie ahead."
At the heart of the dispute are two countries that do not trust each other. The United States, which has accused North Korea of belonging to an "axis of evil" with Iran and prewar Iraq, is demanding that the North give up its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea, which disputes U.S. claims about how advanced the program is, wants economic aid in return for a nuclear freeze as a first step.
After the dispute started in 2002, North Korea expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors, withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and restarted an idle nuclear reactor.
China, the North's last major ally, has tried to draw its isolated dictatorship back to the international mainstream.
Beijing says just getting North Korea to join the talks is a small victory.
"We hope these negotiations can build on the achievement of previous talks and have more in-depth discussions on substantive issues ... and narrow down differences," Zhang told reporters last week.
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