"What the DPRK (North Korea) needs to do is to get serious with denuclearization," Hill said.

"If they get serious with denuclearization, a lot of good things can happen ... if they do not get serious about denuclearization such things will go away."

A series of bilateral meetings between the six parties -- hosts China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan -- were held Sunday ahead of a welcoming banquet, Chinese officials said.

Following the banquet, Hill said he would likely meet with Kim in a bilateral meeting on Monday, with other diplomats saying the likely topic would be US sanctions that led to North Korea walking out of the talks last year.

"I'm neither pessimistic or optimistic," Hill said following the banquet in which all the heads of the delegation embraced in a handshake.

"We'll know tomorrow whether we are going to make some progress or not."

Earlier Hill expressed hope that during the talks North Korea would be able to discuss the dismantling of its nuclear programs as agreed in a September 2005 deal brokered in an earlier round.

"I hope they are coming here with a serious intention of moving ahead and implementing the September agreement," Hill said.

The September 2005 deal calls for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons in return for aid and security guarantees.

But North Korea walked out of the talks a few weeks after the agreement was struck to protest unilateral US financial sanctions on a Macau-based bank accused of laundering and counterfeiting money on behalf of the impoverished regime.

Pyongyang then fundamentally changed the dynamics of the negotiation process with an October 9 nuclear test, which was condemned worldwide and resulted in UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea.

On Saturday after arriving in Beijing, Kim said the talks would fail unless Washington ended its "hostile policy" -- which the North has insisted is the reason behind its nuclear program.

"The nuclear issues cannot be resolved until the United States takes a co-existence policy," Kim said. "I'm not optimistic about prospects for the six-party talks."

North Korea has also long-demanded that the US financial sanctions be lifted.

"Its precondition is for the sanctions imposed on us to be lifted. I do not yet know whether the US is prepared to do that," Kim said, adding they would be prepared to discuss some promises contained in the 2005 deal.

According to Chinese officials, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei held two-way meetings Sunday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse with his counterparts from South Korea, Russia, Japan and the United States.

The US and South Korea also would hold a bilateral meeting, South Korean diplomats said.

China has urged all sides to maintain flexible and pragmatic attitudes and urged patience and restraint in the negotiations.

On Saturday in Tokyo, Hill said the United States hoped to resolve the financial sanctions issue but that Washington was more concerned with denuclearizing North Korea.

"We want to resolve this. That will of course depend on their cooperation and depend on legal matters as well," Hill said after evening talks in Tokyo with Japanese officials.

Japanese negotiator Kenichiro Sasae, who also arrived Sunday, said Tokyo was further interested in discussing a series of North Korean abductions of Japanese nationals that have plagued ties between the rivals for years.

"It's significant that North Korea takes a specific step toward abolishing the nuclear programs," Jiji press quoted Sasae as saying.

"We also need to talk forthright about the abduction issue."

Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso expressed pessimism over the prospects of progress in the talks.

"This is the first time that we have the six-way negotiations after the North conducted the nuclear test, so we have to start from there and I don't think it would be easy," Aso said in Tokyo.

North Korea Warns US Against Hostile Stance In Nuke Talks
Beijing (AFP) Dec 16 - North Korea's nuclear envoy called Saturday for US concessions in crucial upcoming talks on Pyongyang's weapons programme, but warned that he was not optimistic about their prospects of success. The six-nation talks are due to resume Monday in Beijing after a hiatus of more than a year during which the Stalinist state tested a nuclear weapon for the first time.

Kim Kye-Gwan, Pyongyang's envoy, dampened any hopes of a deal as he headed to Beijing, saying the talks would fail unless Washington ended its "hostile policy" -- which the North says was the reason for its shock October 9 test.

"The nuclear issues cannot be resolved until the United States takes a co-existence policy," he said.

"I'm not optimistic about prospects for the six-party talks" because the United States has not changed its stance, Kim was quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua news agency as he left Pyongyang.

Analysts are also pessimistic about the chances of success in the six-way talks, which started in 2003 but have been suspended since November 2005 when the North walked out in protest at US financial sanctions.

Christopher Hill, the chief US negotiator with Pyongyang, was due to start his tough trip with a visit Saturday to close ally Japan before heading on to China.

He acknowledged ahead of his trip that the talks would be "very tough" with no guarantees of persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

But he said that during preliminary meetings in Beijing last month, "there were indications that the DPRK, the North Koreans, would be prepared to deal in specifics at the coming round."

More hopeful signs came out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where two senior North Korean envoys met with the state's Governor Bill Richardson, an experienced negotiator with Pyongyang.

The meeting "was positive and productive and I am cautiously optimistic that there is the chance for good progress," Richardson said in a statement.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the United States has offered North Korea written security guarantees in the name of President George W. Bush.

The White House supported the meeting with Richardson, who is a potential presidential contender from the rival Democratic party.

Richardson could help persuade the North Koreans "to be serious about what they agreed to in the September accord," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

In that September 2005 agreement, North Korea made a vaguely worded pledge to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for security guarantees, energy assistance and improved relations with the West.

But North Korea pulled out two months later, citing US financial sanctions against a Macau-based bank accused of laundering and counterfeiting money on behalf of Pyongyang.

The Bush administration has rejected North Korea's calls for outright bilateral dialogue, saying it would only strike a deal in the six-way forum.

However analysts say the dynamics have changed, with North Korea testing a bomb and Bush weakened by the midterm elections, seen as a repudiation of hawks in his administration behind the war in Iraq.

"There may be a slight possibility because of the Iraq business and Bush's defeat in the last elections that the US will be willing to make some concessions," said Robert Dujarric, a Tokyo-based North Korea expert and co-chair of the Korea-Japan Study Group.

"I think fundamentally, though, there is not enough to make a deal because North Korea wants the nukes. It's difficult to say, 'You have the nukes, have a nice day,' even if that's what's going to happen in the long run," he said.

China, the closest North Korea has to an ally, has been under intense US pressure to exert its influence since the nuclear test, which led the United Nations to impose punishing sanctions on impoverished Pyongyang.

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com