PYONGYANG, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Thursday that it has made progress in the negotiations over the declaration of its nuclear programs with a visiting U.S. delegation.

    Sung Kim, head of the U.S. team, told Xinhua that they had a detailed and productive discussion with the DPRK officials.

    The official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry as saying that "the negotiations proceeded in a sincere and constructive manner and progress was made there."

    The U.S. delegation, made up of officials of the State Department and White House as well as experts of the Defense Department and Energy Department, discussed with their DPRK counterparts on technical matters, including the contents of the nuclear declaration, the spokesman said.

    The U.S. team arrived here Tuesday after driving across the heavily fortified inter-Korean border and left the DPRK capital city Thursday via the same route.

    International talks on ending the DPRK's nuclear activities had been stalled for months after Pyongyang missed a December deadline to give a declaration of its nuclear programs as it promised to do.

    Some progress over the declaration had been made since the U.S. top nuclear negotiator with the DPRK Christopher Hill and his counterpart Kim Gye Gwan held talks on April 8 in Singapore.