Stephen Bosworth, the US special envoy to North Korea, arrived Wednesday afternoon in Beijing and was expected to meet with Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the US strongly backed efforts to restart the China-hosted talks, which include Japan, Russia, China, the US and North and South Korea.
“The key to getting to that point is for North Korea to come back to the six-party process, which they're struggling to do,” Crowley said Tuesday.
North Korea last year quit the disarmament-for-aid talks and conducted a second nuclear test, drawing tightened UN sanctions. The North has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the negotiating table.
However, the reclusive communist regime sent its nuclear negotiator to Beijing earlier this month for dayslong talks on restarting the negotiations.
South Korean envoy Wi Sung-lac met with China's Wu on Tuesday.
Wi told reporters on Wednesday that he had “useful” talks with Chinese officials about how to restart the six-party talks.
“It was useful for South Korea and China to review the situation and discuss where we are now,” Wi said, according to Yonhap news agency.
Wi, however, said the North appears to remain unchanged in its calls for the peace talks and a lifting of sanctions as a condition for its return to the talks, Yonhap said.
Wi was to return home later Wednesday and is to meet Bosworth on Thursday, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry.
Yonhap reported that Wi did not plan to see Kim Yong Il, the head of a North Korean delegation also in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials North Korea relies heavily on China as its main source of economic aid and diplomatic support.
Chinese President Hu Jintao met Tuesday with Kim. The official Xinhua News Agency did not indicate whether the two discussed nuclear talks, but Hu was quoted as saying that it was important to “promote friendly exchanges and expand pragmatic cooperation between the two countries.”