"It was quite a useful sitting specifying the positions of the sides", sources in the Russian delegation told RIA Novosti.
At the same time, it is hardly possible to expect prompt results in settling the nuclear problem, Russian experts said.
The discussions were over on Friday. Their participants have agreed to gather for a second meeting of the working group, a date for which will be specified through the diplomatic channels.
"During the sitting of the working group, its participants from six countries confirmed their agreement that the third plenary round of the six-lateral talks on the nuclear problem on the Korea peninsula at the level of foreign deputy ministers will be held at the earlier coordinated timeframe in the end of June", representatives of the Russian delegation is quoted as saying.
Earlier, official spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Liu Xiangciao said that at that sitting all participants "have added a new content to their positions", laid down "honestly and consistently", although serious differences are preserved between the main participants in the negotiating process - the United States and North Korea.
Japanese sources said that, during the working-group meeting, the delegations of the United States and North Korea met at least two times, which is also a new phenomenon in this negotiating process. Observers in Beijing also note this circumstance: the North Korean delegation has become more open to the mass media and during two days held two briefings at the gates of the North Korean embassy.
The first sitting of the working group of experts from China, North Korea, the United States, South Korea and Japan will be officially crowned by a Saturday meeting between the participants and Dai Bingo, Chinese first deputy foreign minister, RIA Novosti learnt from diplomatic sources in the Chinese capital.
On Saturday Nin Fukui, ambassador for problems of the Korean peninsula, chairing the three-day meeting of the working group, will hold a briefing, at which he will give the press a sidelight on the sitting.
