North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has told a visiting Chinese envoy that Pyongyang has no plans to conduct further nuclear tests, South Korea's Yonhap news agency says.
Mr Kim made the comment during a meeting with Tang Jiaxuan in Pyongyang and it comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Beijing to rally support for UN sanctions against North Korea, passed after it tested a nuclear device on 9 October.
China, a traditional ally of North Korea, is seen as having the greatest potential leverage over its reclusive neighbour.
President Hu Jintao sent a team of diplomats led by State Councillor Tang to Pyongyang earlier this week as speculation mounted that communist North Korea might be about to detonate a second nuclear device.
Rice calls for a return to talks
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, had earlier called on North Korea to return unconditionally to six-party talks on ending its nuclear programme.
She was speaking after talks in Beijing with her Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, on the appropriate international response to the recent North Korean nuclear test.
At a joint news conference this morning, Dr Rice said the test was a serious provocation, but that both the US and China were committed to a diplomatic solution to the issue.
But she told reporters that an agreement reached at the six-party talks last year should by honoured by the North Korean government.
