Just one day ahead of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program scheduled to open Tuesday, the heads of the six national delegations have arrived in Beijing. Kenichiro Sasae, (left) director general of the Japanese foreign ministry’s Asia-Oceania affairs bureau and chief negotiator for the talks, answers questions from reporters in Beijing on Monday. Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and top negotiator for the talks, Alexander Alexeyev, gets in a car upon arriving at Beijing Capital Airport on the same day./Yonhap S. Korea, U.S., Japan Want Written Commitment from North U.S. Point Man Seen as Key to Six-Party Talks N. Korea's Fate Hangs by a Thin Thread Fine Words Reopen Six-Party Talks Rough Sailing Ahead for Six-Party Talks N.Korea, U.S. Draw Lines in the Sand Six-Party Talks Hit First Snag Six-Party Talks Must Stay Focused on Essentials Devil Is in the Details at Six-Party Talks Six-Party Talks Going Well: N.K. Diplomat Six Parties Hammer Out Statement of Principles Six-Party Talks Wrestle With Statement of Principles Frustration All Round at Six-Party Talks No Breakthrough at Six-Party Talks

Prior to the meeting, Hill said the two sides were "just trying to get acquainted, to review how we see things coming up and compare notes."

Working-level officials from the two countries secretly met several times in New York this year and also briefly during previous rounds, but the U.S. does not acknowledge those meetings as formal negotiations. In the run-up to the resumption of talks, Washington grudgingly acceded to bilateral talks provided they come "within the framework of the six-party talks." That framework has now been restored, and the opening ceremony Tuesday will take only 30 minutes, with the rest of the day devoted to bilateral contacts to give the two countries plenty of opportunity for direct negotiations.

Hill on Monday only smiled when asked about reports that the U.S. has proposed setting up a U.S. liaison office in Pyongyang, which represents the lowest possible level of a diplomatic relationship. This was mooted during 1994 talks between the two countries but rejected by Pyongyang at the time.

The White House had been cool on exchanging liaison offices, but the wind changed in June, when President George W. Bush said the U.S. was prepared to form a more normal relationship, always provided North Korea dismantles its nuclear program. Normalization of the relationship has been one of Pyongyang’s core demands.

Just one day ahead of the six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program scheduled to open on Tuesday, Song Min-soon, head of the South Korean delegation, and Christopher Hill, head of the U.S. delegation, answer reporters' questions at China World Hotel in Beijing after a bilateral meeting Monday.

Monday’s meeting appears to have mainly provided a platform for the two sides to restate their existing positions. Kim reportedly reiterated that any nuclear disarmament must be mutual, while Hill responded this was unacceptable and insisted North Korea must make a commitment to unilaterally scrapping its nuclear weapons program during this round.

A South Korean official said since this was the first meeting the two sides merely reconfirmed positions they would use as baselines from which to conduct their future negotiations.

Meanwhile, the South Korean delegation also met separately with their American and Japanese counterparts to discuss cooperation during the negotiations.

(englishnews@chosun.com )