Negotiators at six-party talks in Beijing this week will discuss a freeze of DPRK's nuclear programs and inspections leading to their dismantling, Tuesday's China Daily quoted South Korean official as saying.

The official was speaking at the end of two days of working-group talks to lay a foundation for the senior-level negotiations among the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China set to run from Wednesday to Saturday.

It was unclear whether progress toward ending the 20-month-old crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programs could be made.

Protagonists the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have given little sign of budging from their widely divergent positions.

"There was a consensus that at the plenary talks there should be specific discussions on a nuclear freeze accompanied by inspection as the first step of dismantlement," the South Korean official told reporters after the working-level talks closed.

"We believe that there will be authoritative and substantive discussions on elements of a freeze and other issues at the plenary talks," he said. "The representatives of the countries agreed that nuclear dismantlement is the ultimate goal."

Host China has been cautiously optimistic about progress this week, but other participants have expected little headway.

DPRK and the United States remain at loggerheads -- with Washington demanding Pyongyang fully dismantle  its weapons programs and the North Korea saying it wants aid in return for a freeze.

The working-level talks had been hamstrung because parties were waiting for the main talks to discuss any meaty proposals, U.S. officials said.

"One consequence of holding working-group talks right before the plenary is that the North Koreans and others, for example, have said 'We'll talk to you in the plenary'. So I mean it's just completely negated the purpose," a Bush administration official said in Washington.

"We didn't expect much out of this and our low expectations have been met."

Pressure has been building for movement toward a solution to the crisis that erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials said DPRK had admitted to a uranium enrichment program.

DPRK, which U.S. President Bush bracketed in an "axis of evil" with pre-war Iraq and Iran, has denied that program.

It took its plutonium nuclear plant near Pyongyang out of mothballs in early 2003 and says it has reprocessed the fuel in a move that analysts say could provide material for several bombs.

DPRK may bring up a freeze-for-aid proposal at the senior-level talks opening Wednesday, U.S. officials said.

"They have presented such ideas in the past without much success. The key this time will be to see if they are tying it to the elimination of all their nuclear programs, if they see it as a step toward the elimination of all their nuclear programs," said another Bush administration official.     

This year, the United States shifted its hard-line stance to say it would not oppose offers of aid from other countries to the North in return for a freeze, but insisted on the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of the program before U.S. security guarantees.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing signaled Monday he was cautiously optimistic some progress would be made this week.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said it was unclear whether the North was willing to be flexible but said the parties appeared less entrenched than in earlier rounds.

"It's still not entirely clear at this point, but up to now, the exchanges of views have been expressions of very strong opposition," he said in Tokyo. "This time things are a bit different."

(China Daily via agencies June 23, 2004)