U.S. envoy calls North Korea talks "substantive"

BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy for the North Korean nuclear dispute said talks with Pyongyang's lead negotiator on Thursday were "serious and substantive" and would continue the next day but analysts have said no major breakthrough is expected.

The talks in Beijing between U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies and North Korean envoy Kim Kye-gwan are the Obama administration's latest effort to gauge whether Pyongyang's new leadership is willing to curb its nuclear activities and return to disarmament negotiations.

After a day of discussions with Kim, Davies told reporters that he could not go into details about any possible progress.

"The talks today were substantive and serious and we covered quite a number of the issues, and so as I say we'll pick up again tomorrow and see if we can't make a little bit of progress," Davies told reporters who gathered at his hotel

The topics they covered included North Korea's demands for food aid, he said.

"In fact, they haven't quite concluded, and we intend to pick up where we have left off this evening tomorrow," he said, adding that he would also have dinner with the North Korean officials. "We are still in mid-negotiations."

If these negotiations succeed, they could inch forward efforts to revive fully fledged nuclear disarmament talks -- provided the two sides manage to narrow differences over what disarmament entails and what North Korea could get in return.

But there is a moat of distrust to cross before North Korea and the United States and its allies get there.

North Korea agreed to curtail its nuclear activities under a an aid-for-denuclearization agreement reached in September 2005 by six-party talks bringing together North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.