The hermit state heads to the table

All five states reportedly will try to convince Kim, using different tools and tactics, that the development of nuclear weapons will make both his regime and surrounding countries less secure.

The US will reportedly arrive with a very strong line against giving any security guarantees or major funding to a regime it claims is engaging in "nuclear blackmail."

How strongly the other four negotiating partners will back this tough line is unclear.

Bush administration officials have long felt the North could be a huge investment and manufacturing zone - an industrial park to be developed by South Korean and Japanese know-how.

South Korea and Japan are expected to offer proposals along those lines Wednesday. At present, North Korea's economy does not outmatch that of states like Vermont.

Yet such openness would require an extraordinary change of mind on Kim's part - or his departure. Kim's problem is that opening his regime exposes the North Korean people to influences far different than the juche ideology that now depicts him as a near deity.

As host for the talks, China is sending the most senior official to the meeting, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly will head the US delegation. Mr. Kelly's experience in dealing with the North dates to the 1994 "Agreed Framework," negotiated between Kim Jong Il's father - the founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung - and the Clinton administration.

The heads of the other delegations are Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il of North Korea, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov of Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck of South Korea, and Director-General Mitoji Yabunaka of the Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Because of worry that North Korea may insist that the meeting not be held principally in English, each delegation will bring up to five interpreters for simultaneous translations.

Six countries will meet Wednesday in Beijing for three days to discuss North Korea's weapons programs. Here is a look at what each party hopes to bring away from the talks.

United states:

• Wants verifiable end to North Korea's programs for weapons of mass destruction.

• Wants Asian nations to pressure Kim Jong Il to abandon his nuclear ambition.

• Desires improved blockades on the North's illicit cash flows and military technology.

• Hawks want regime change.

North Korea:

• Wants regime survival.

• Will discuss dismantling nuclear program in exchange for US security guarantees and possible US withdrawal from the Korean peninsula.

• Wants access to credit and loans.

• May want nuclear option anyway.

South Korea:

• Wants eventual reunification with North and an end to 50-year-old armistice.

• Seeks delicate balance of closer ties with Pyongyang while maintaining US security alliance.

China:

• Wants central role as "honest broker" in the crisis.

• Wants North as buffer from US military, but worried about a nuclear North and US hawks.

• Might want the six-party talks to evolve into continuing regional Asian security group.

• Has old ties to Pyongyang; along with South, China has the most to lose if North collapses.

Japan:

• Desires end to North's missile program; biological and nuclear weapons can reach Japan.

• Wants normalization with North; will pay North up to $1 billion in wartime compensation.

• Wants clarification on kidnapped Japanese and return of abducted children now in North.

Russia:

• UN Security Council member, former ally of North, and sometime confidant of Kim Jong Il.

• Presence at talks affirms role as "great power" player.

• Could be an X factor, bringing surprise constructive initiative to the table.

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