A Chinese researcher has urged the United States to be the first to make concessions in order to resolve North Korea's nuclear weapons standoff.

During an international conference held on Monday, a researcher at China Institute of Contemporary International Relations stated that North Korea, a relatively small and weak country, would not easily make concessions on its nuclear weapons programs and therefore the U.S., as a superpower, should yield first to produce a major breakthrough on the issue.

Meanwhile, Jon Wolfsthal at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned that if the six-way talks should fail, there is a possibility of a head-on collision between Washington and Beijing.