Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said on Wednesday she had held a “good meeting” on nuclear disarmament with Pak Ui-chun, her North Korean counterpart, the highest level encounter between Washington and Pyongyang since the nuclear crisis began five years ago.

Although US officials played down the talks, calling it a simple “conversation”, they follow days after a landmark meeting between senior American and Iranian diplomats on Tehran’s nuclear activities.