Delegations from both sides, led by US special envoy Charles Kartman and his counterpart, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-Gwan, first were to meet informally, the official said.

"Today there will be some informal contacts between the delegations, then on Wednesday there will be a full delegation meeting," said the official, asking not to be named.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations here acknowledged the Pyongyang delegation had arrived, but declined to give any further details.

The open-ended New York talks were focus primarily on preparations for the historic visit, seen as a step toward normalizing relations between the United States and North Korea, which fought each other in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Included in those preparations is the "crafting of a substantive agenda for the high-level visit" aimed at improving bilateral relations, particularly on the issues of North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, the State Department official said.

While Pyongyang has yet to identify the dignitary who will travel here, a US State Department official said earlier that the landmark visit expected in about a month was "on track."

The New York meetings are also expected to feature smaller, parallel discussions on terrorism later in the week, with Washington's side being led by US Coordinator for counterterrorism, Michael Sheehan.

Pyongyang is eager to be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, which in addition to the political implications, has effectively blocked international loans desperately needed by the cash-strapped Stalinist state.

"The delegation from North Korea will be under extreme pressure from the North Korean leadership to get as much as possible," said Hyung-Kook Kim, Asian Studies director at American University in Washington.

"They are probably concerned with the timing of lifting economic sanctions and deleting North Korea from the terrorist list as soon as possible. The terrorist list is a key issue," Kim told AFP.

However, the State Department official, said the chances for Pyongyang's immediate removal from the list were slim.

"In all likelihood, the talks will continue," he told AFP by telephone from Washington.

According to South Korean government officials, North Korea's First Vice-Foreign Minister Kang Sok-Ju is likely to make the watershed Washington journey, which became possible when Washington and Pyongyang struck a deal in Berlin last September.

Under that agreement, Pyongyang agreed to suspend its long-range ballistic missile tests in return for an easing of decades-old US economic sanctions on the starving communist nation.

Former US defense secretary William Perry, tasked by President Bill Clinton to review Pyongyang-Washington relations, laid the groundwork for improved ties with the Stalinist state during a visit to Pyongyang last May.

Perry offered increased US economic assistance in exchange for a pledge by North Korea not to develop weapons of mass destruction and to normalize ties with Washington.

The United States and its Asian ally South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea. The 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in a fragile armistice instead of a permanent peace treaty.

Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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