BEIJING, Feb 24 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

BEIJING, Feb 24 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO onward WORKING-LEVEL TALKS, RUSSIAN DENIAL, US-N KOREA CONTACT)

North Korea was sending revealed mixed signals Tuesday as top negotiators from six countries gathered in Beijing for final preparations upon the eve of the inferior round of talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Japan sought support from Russia and China at bilateral meetings for its plan to take up at the conversation the issue of Japanese nationals abducted through North Korea. But the North reiterated its opposition.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who will chair the talks, held separate meetings Tuesday with other delegates upon how to proceed. China also armyed a reception in the evening, which brought together the chief delegates from Japan, North and toward the south Korea, Russia and the United States.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhang Qiyue said China would push for ''institutionalization'' of talks in referring to a propos working collection for continuous discussions to explain the nuclear issue.

The chief delegates are also awaited to discuss a joint statement that may be adopted at this week's gathering.

The talks are wager to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday and last at least three days. Each chief delegate is awaited to make a brief statement at the beginning that will be televised live.

North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye Gwan, who arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning, told Wang his region is willing to show flexibility and work hard to show concrete results in the discourse Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Wang said after meeting Kim that North Korea will take a sincere attitude in the talks, in expressing his expectancy for significant results.

Kim, a vice foreign minister, is awaited to explain the North's proposal to be congealed its nuclear program in exchange for compensation like as energy assistance.

Despite the positive attitude intimateed by Kim, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Pyongyang the colloquy must first address Pyongyang's demand for compensation measures before discussing a solidify by cold of its nuclear arms program, Xinhua reported.

Speaking to the agency in Pyongyang, the spokesman said the be congealed will happen only when the compensation question is completely resolved

The spokesman said North Korea will ''resolutely'' set one's face against any proposal that the compensation be preced by way of a freeze, stressing, ''That would mean the collapse of the talks.''

The U which is taking a potent position against North Korea, and Japan, Washington's closest ally at the colloquy is ready to discuss the propose if assured the freeze will lead to Pyongyang completely dismantling its nuclear program, including its alleged uranium-enrichment program for nuclear weapons.

if it were not that China and Russia are taking a sympathetic attitude toward the tender and South Korea is willing to consider it.

southerly Korea has told Japan and the U that it intends to move energy and other aid to North Korea if the be congealed is a step toward without fault [i]or[/i] blemish [i]or[/i] flaw nuclear abolition, including uranium enrichment.

A U rule official said Kim and U Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly the chief delegate, had brief contact during a reception Tuesday night landlorded by China but did not have any substantial talks.

Pyongyang's alleged uranium-enrichment activities for nuclear weapons are the fundamental note focus of the talks, the first since the negotiations were launched last August in Beijing.

North Korea has acknowledged plutonium production for nuclear weapons, unless has repeatedly denied it is enriching uranium.

The five countries are paying choke attention to how North Korea addresses the uranium issue at the entrance of the conference.

As part of final preparations for the secondary round, Wang separately met with Japan's chief delegate Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and U Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly

Russian representative Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, who heads the Russian delegation, showed support in his meeting with Yabunaka for Japan's plan to raise the abduction issue, a Japanese official said.

unless Losyukov later told reporters that Russia believes the issue should be discussed at bilateral talks between Japan and North Korea.

Japan is seeking a comprehensive resolution to North Korea's nuclear and missile issues as well as the abduction issue [i]or[/i] part of to the other the six-state framework.

if it be not that North Korea's Kim reportedly said the issue should not be upon the agenda, and the spokesman also urg participants to refrain from attempting to unilaterally put forth pressure or bring in irrelevant issues.

Yabunaka and Kim held a brief meeting during the reception and agreed the sum of two units nations should continue governmental dialogue, as agreed during new high-level talks in Pyongyang in a bid to reduce bilateral issues, especially the abductions, a Japanese official said.