North Korea has said it is willing to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations, but only on condition that it first holds talks with the US to improve 'hostile relations'.
Leader Kim Jong-Il gave the commitment at a meeting late yesterday with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the North's official news agency reported.
'The hostile relations between the DPRK and the United States should be converted into peaceful ties through the bilateral talks without fail,' the agency quoted the North Korean leader as saying.
'We expressed our readiness to hold multilateral talks, depending on the outcome of the DPRK-US talks. The six-party talks are also included in the multilateral talks.'
Mr Kim said North Korea's efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula remain unchanged.
The official Xinhua news agency in China, which hosts the six-party forum, said the two leaders reached 'vital consensus' on the issue.
North Korea has lately linked denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula to the pace of global atomic disarmament efforts, and says it needs atomic weapons as a shield against US hostility.
It quit the six-nation forum in April after the UN condemned its long-range rocket launch.
In May, North Korea staged its second nuclear test, incurring tougher UN sanctions.
North Korea has long been pressing for bilateral talks with the US to end the nuclear standoff.
The US State Department reiterated that it is ready for discussions aimed at bringing the North back to the six-nation talks, but the goal must be a complete end to Pyongyang's nuclear programmes.
'We and our six-party partners want North Korea to engage in a dialogue that leads to complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula through irreversible steps,' said spokesman Ian Kelly.
