The US, N Korea and China will hold talks in Beijing next week on Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear weapons ambitions, US and South Korean officials said on Wednesday, raising hopes of a way out of the six-month-old crisis. US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly will lead the US team for talks in Beijing about ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. He may also visit Japan and South Korea. “You should look at these as initial discussions. We do not expect an immediate breakthrough but we are looking for progress,” said Sean McCormack, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. Analysts said it was early days in the arduous process of dealing with Communist N Korea, whose reputation as a no-holds-barred negotiator stretches back to the Korean War. ‘‘I don’t think anyone is betting on an easy time,’’ said a Western diplomat in Seoul. But the prospect of an easing of tension propelled South Korean shares to a 12-week closing high and was welcomed by Seoul and Tokyo — even though those two close US allies will not take part in the meeting in the Chinese capital. The relatively quick US-led victory over Iraq appears to have played an important role in prompting N Korea to retreat from its insistence on bilateral talks with Washington, although South Korea’s foreign minister said Pyongyang’s main ally, China, helped bring about a compromise on the talks format. ‘‘We expect multilateral talks with N Korea to take place in Beijing next week,’’ said a US official in Seoul. ‘‘We’ve consulted very closely with South Korea, and they have expressed their approval.’’ South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan, in a news conference confirming that talks would be held next week, said Seoul intended to play a central role in multilateral diplomacy. In the face of public dismay at South Korea’s exclusion, Yoon said Seoul ‘‘chose the safer of two options’’ — oppose the trilateral arrangement and risk scuppering talks or support three-way dialogue on condition of future participation. ‘‘We will not bear any responsibilities arising from discussions in which we did not take part,’’ Yoon said. Seoul was shut out of a deal between Pyongyang and Washington in 1994 that ended the previous North Korea nuclear crisis. ‘‘It will be hard to achieve concrete results without South Korean participation,’’ he said, adding that he believed Japan and Russia would also play a role as diplomacy unfolded. Officials in Washington earlier confirmed a New York Times report that President George W. Bush had approved a plan to begin talks with N Korea with China taking part. The developments came after the North signalled last weekend it was willing to go along with a US demand for multilateral talks, after having insisted for months it wanted to talk only to Washington about its suspected nuclear plans. Yoon and the US official could not confirm the talks would be held on April 23, as reported by Japan’s Kyodo news agency, but they said Washington would announce details overnight. Japan’s main spokesman Yasuo Fukuda welcomed what he called ‘‘the first step towards multi-party talks’’, adding that he was confident the initiative would soon develop into multinational talks including Japan.
