Nuclear Talks on North Korea

BEIJING (AP) -- International talks on North Korea's nuclear program resumed Thursday after Pyongyang's envoy said he was ready to discuss initial steps toward nuclear disarmament, raising hopes for the first tangible progress at the talks since they began more than three years ago.

''We are prepared to discuss first-stage measures,'' North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan said on arriving in Beijing for the six-nation negotiations, which began later Thursday at a Chinese state guesthouse.

American experts who visited Kim in Pyongyang last week said North Korea would propose a freeze of its main nuclear reactor and a resumption of international inspections in exchange for energy aid and a normalization of relations with Washington.

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