Talks aimed at resolving the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions began in the Chinese capital, Beijing, today.
Six countries are attending the talks - North and South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the United States.
The US is calling for Pyongyang's nuclear programme to be dismantled in a verifiable and irreversible way.
North Korea has rejected the idea of nuclear inspections and is instead calling for a non-aggression pact with Washington.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi kicked off the day with words of welcome, followed by greetings from the others in alphabetical order based on the official names of the countries in English.
The five visiting parties laid out their official positions in reverse alphabetical order, starting with the United States, which took one hour with consecutive interpretation.
The talks are due to run until Friday.
