A US envoy Monday stressed unity with South Korea, on the eve of talks in Pyongyang aimed at bringing North Korea back to nuclear disarmament negotiations.

Stephen Bosworth, who will be the first official from President Barack Obama's administration to hold direct talks with the communist state, said the decision to start his mission in Seoul was "not an accident".

He was speaking before talks with South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-Lac, a day before he flies to the North's capital for a three-day visit.

Wi welcomed the US envoy's decision to start his trip in Seoul, saying it sent a clear signal that the two countries were consulting closely on strategy.

Bosworth also met Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan and was later to hold talks with Kim Sung-Hwan, senior presidential secretary for security and foreign affairs.

The North quit six-nation disarmament talks in April. It staged its second nuclear test the following month and followed up with a volley of missile launches.

After months of sabre-rattling, the North told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in October it was ready to return to the six-party talks — if the two-way discussions with the United States prove satisfactory.

The two sides, however, appear to have different agendas.

Japan-based Choson Sinbo newspaper, Pyongyang's unofficial mouthpiece, has said Bosworth's trip should focus on "establishing a peace regime" on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea maintains that a peace deal with Washington formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War is key to resolving the nuclear impasse.

But the United States says this week's visit will focus only on reviving the six-party process, and is wary of efforts to split its negotiating partners with the North — South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

Hopes of major progress this week are low.

"I don't expect much from the first visit to the North," Bosworth was quoted as telling Yonhap news agency last week. He has avoided reporters since arriving in Seoul.

Bosworth, the US special envoy on North Korea, is expected to meet Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-Ju in Pyongyang.

On his return Thursday he will brief officials in Seoul, going on to Beijing on Friday, to Tokyo on Saturday and to Moscow on Sunday.

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