A team of North Korean delegates are on their way to New York to attend the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, a plenum for the world's largest inter-state body, amid renewed hope for the often-stalled nuclear negotiation, prompted by the latest overtures from Kim Jong-il.

The North Korean delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon left Pyongyang on Friday to attend the 64th U.N. General Assembly, Yonhap News Agency said, citing the North's Korean Central News Agency.

In talks with a visiting Chinese envoy on Friday, Kim said his country is willing to resolve the nuclear dispute through "bilateral or multilateral talks." His remarks, reported by China's government-run Xinhua News Agency, hinted that North Korea may possibly rejoin six-party denuclearization talks it quit earlier this year.

Washington welcomed Kim's reported remarks. Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, said he understands Kim's remarks were in line with the U.S. position that any bilateral contact between the two countries should be held within the six-party framework. The multilateral forum aimed at ending the North's nuclear drive also involves South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

"It sounds as if North Korea is underscoring that it will accept those conditions," Campbell told reporters in Tokyo, where he visited to meet with officials of the new Yukio Hatoyama government launched earlier this week.

"If we have any initial bilateral interaction with North Korea, it will be as a means to get back to the six-party talks," he said.

Washington has said it will decide after the U.N. session whether and when to hold bilateral talks with Pyongyang. The U.S. special envoy for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, has a North Korean invitation to visit Pyongyang.