After a hiatus of 13 months and a nuclear test by North Korea, the six-party talks on the nuclear disarmament of the Korean Peninsula resumed in Beijing on December 18 amid high stakes and high expectations.

With North Korea's nuclear test in October, the second phase of the fifth round of the talks has implications far beyond the six countries involved-China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, South Korea and the United States. The whole world is watching.

Analysts concluded that there were three elements making this session different from the previous rounds of talks, which began in 2003. First of all, North Korea actually is a country with nuclear capability. The talks were more sensitive because they faced more challenges and difficulties after North Korea's nuclear test; and there were more bilateral discussions and small-scale multilateral discussions among the parties.

The fresh talks focused on the implementation of the joint statement of September 2005, under which North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees.

"The session still considered North Korea as a non-nuclear country," Shi Yongming, a senior researcher from the China Institute Of International Studies, commented to Beijing Review.

"If the six-party talks acknowledged North Korea as a country with nuclear capability, definitely North Korea would have asked a much higher price to adhere to the statement and to abandon nuclear weapons," Shi said, noting that this is the only set of principles the six-party talks are adhering to.

In addition, since differences remain among the countries, bilateral talks and smaller multilateral discussions were more suitable and more efficient in pushing the process forward, Shi said.

The six parties put high expectations on this session. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo said the negotiations were "deepening" despite twists and turns in the talks. Dai underlined the complexity of the nuclear issue, saying, "It is natural that some fluctuations and difficulties come up" in the talks, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The fact that both the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea's official name, were unwilling to change their entrenched positions is the reason why the talks may move at a snail's pace, observers said.

Among the discussions, one-on-one meetings were held between chief North Korean negotiator Kim Kye Gwan and the chief U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill. The two countries have had an ongoing dispute over the financial sanctions that the United States placed on North Korea, which was said to be one of the key stumbling blocks that had stalled the six-party talks for the past 13 months.

Progress made?

Shi said he believes that whether or not North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program largely depends on the United States.