A North Korean envoy held talks with Chinese officials on Wednesday, June 19 that experts said were unlikely to yield concessions from Pyongyang on its nuclear program but were more aimed at repairing ties with Beijing, Reuters reported.

First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, who has represented Pyongyang at previous international talks to get North Korea to halt its nuclear program, was meeting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui in Beijing.

His trip comes just days after North Korea offered talks with Washington to ease tensions that spiked earlier this year when it threatened to wage nuclear war on the United States and South Korea. The White House said any talks must involve action by Pyongyang to show it is moving towards disarmament.

North Korea was looking for holes in the international consensus that it must denuclearize by seeking dialogue with various countries, said Wang Dong, an international relations professor at Peking University in Beijing.

"If China's stance is still firm, North Korea will understand that there are no loopholes to exploit," Wang said. "You can't have your cake and eat it too. I think China will make this clear to North Korea," he said, referring to Pyongyang's refusal to give up its nuclear weapons while at the same time trying to mend ties with key powers.

The talks are the highest-level contact between China and North Korea since U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in California in early June and agreed Pyongyang had to denuclearize.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will never abandon its nuclear weapons, calling them its "treasured sword", a term one of its official newspapers used again on Wednesday.

Li Bin, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing, said he did not believe North Korea was ready to discuss its nuclear program with China.