The six-party forum began in 2003 with the aim of convincing North Korea to disarm.
But negotiations have seen many false dawns and failed to stop the regime from conducting its atomic test.
Piao Jianyi, an international relations scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the nation's top government think tank, said this session was likely to produce "a positive outcome," the state-run China Daily reported.
But he added: "It will be difficult for the negotiators to reach a consensus on how much economic compensation each party would pay for Pyongyang's commitment to give up its nuclear program."
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