US and North Korean envoys met on Monday on the eve of a long-awaited resumption of multilateral talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, raising hopes of a less confrontational approach after three rounds of deadlock.
The Beijing encounter between US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan took place before the fourth round of six-party talks between the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China gets under way formally on Tuesday.
"I can't say whether I'm optimistic or pessimistic, but certainly everyone has gone to work," a senior US official told a news conference late on Monday after Hill's meeting with Kim.
"The meeting with the DPRK in particular was a very businesslike atmosphere," he added. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Three previous rounds ended without progress and few expect any breakthrough this week. But the meeting between Washington and Pyongyang and faint progress at weekend talks between the two Koreas provided a more buoyant atmosphere for this, the first formal session in 13 months.
"We're just trying to get acquainted, to review how we see things coming up and compare notes," Hill had told reporters ahead of the meeting. In the end the pair talked for 75 minutes.