North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has told Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao that his country was prepared to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the United States.
Mr Kim's comments, carried by official North Korean and Chinese media, were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May.
Pyongyang claimed the launch was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but it was widely condemned as a test of the North's long-range missile technology.
The stalled talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the US.
Meanwhile, a South Korean news agency has reported North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities.
South Korean and US intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinising atomic facilities in North Korea since the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear programme in anger over a UN rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.
In the meeting with Mr Wen, Mr Kim said that North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States", China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.
North Korea has long sought one-on-one negotiations with the US, claiming that it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls the "US hostile policy" and "nuclear threats" against the regime.
A South Korean news agency also cited the government source as saying that North Korea has conducted missile engine tests a few times recently on the country's west coast at a new missile launch site that is in the final stage of construction.
