After two years of fraught negotiations marred by suspicion, name-calling, table-turning and even the odd bit of pleading, it seemed the North Korean nuclear crisis was no closer to resolution last week than the day multilateral talks opened in August 2003.

Christopher Hill, Washington’s top negotiator to the talks, was struggling to sound hopeful as he landed in Beijing last Tuesday and even the perennially optimistic South Koreans were conceding there was a greater chance of failure than success.