Reuters Business Channel | Reuters.com

Reuters Business Channel | Reuters.com: "BEIJING, July 26 (Reuters) - Six-party talks aimed at ending the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions resumed on Tuesday after a one-year hiatus with positive signals from both Washington and Pyongyang raising hopes for progress.

While few expect a breakthrough this week in Beijing, the atmosphere in the run-up to the fourth round of discussions between the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and China has been upbeat.

The United States held a rare one-on-one meeting with North Korea on Monday and planned another on Tuesday, raising hopes of a less confrontational approach to discussions which have dragged on for nearly three years.

U.S. officials described the atmosphere at Monday's meeting, which lasted for 75 minutes, as positive and 'businesslike'.

'Opening talks is important. But what's more important is to achieve actual progress such as denuclearisation,' North Korean chief negotiator Kim Kye-gwan said at Tuesday's opening session.

'Our delegation is fully ready for this and we believe other parties including the United States are also ready for it.'

U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill responded in kind, with reassurances that Washington believed the North, which it once branded part of an 'axis of evil', was a sovereign state which it would not attack."