Talks focus on how to check North Korea's nuclear claims

BEIJING (Reuters) - Nuclear negotiators began hammering out procedures to check North Korea's account of its nuclear programs on Thursday, with envoys describing the talks as helpful but far from conclusive.

The six-party negotiations aimed at coaxing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions are the first in nine months, after Pyongyang last month produced a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear activities, one of the big steps pledged under a preliminary disarmament deal.

U.S. envoy Christopher Hill told reporters this fresh session marked a start in seeking agreement on rules to check through the secretive North's nuclear account and also to monitor aid and other commitments by other countries.

"All in all, I think it was a good start to the process, but I think the effort to negotiate the actual verification protocol will be very important," Hill told reporters late in the evening after a day of negotiations.

An expert group would grapple with details of verification on Friday, while the envoys would discuss the energy aid promised to the North in return for the disarmament steps, Hill added.

The veteran U.S. negotiator said there were "no surprises" in the negotiations but there were disagreements on the specifics. "There's going to be a lot of discussion. There are differences on how it will work," he said.

China's leading negotiator in the talks, Wu Dawei, told the opening session that he was encouraged by the fact the process was getting under way again.

"It is encouraging to see in the past three years, despite twists and turns, all of us are sharing the same boat and walking the same path," Wu said.

The talks, which group North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China, are scheduled to run for three days in the Chinese capital, ending Saturday.

"The parties had differences of perception and priorities, but with consultations held prior to the talks, each side has a fairly good understanding of the others' views," South Korean envoy Kim Sook told reporters.

Over the course of the long-running negotiations, the parties have induced North Korea to freeze its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and begin steps to dismantle it, in exchange for energy aid and the promise of improved diplomatic relations.

But questions remain about North Korea's declaration and its murky nuclear program, particularly U.S. suspicions Pyongyang was secretly seeking to enrich uranium, giving it another pathway to the material for nuclear weapons.

In 2006, North Korea exploded its first nuclear test device, using plutonium of the kind made by at Yongbyon, alarming regional capitals and galvanizing the then stalled six-party talks.

The envoys discussed the North's declaration, Hill said, hinting that disagreement remained over its adequacy.

"The various representatives, heads of delegation, gave some opinions about the degree of its completeness," he said of the declaration.

(Writing by Lindsay Beck and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Stephen Weeks)