North Korea agreed to the Chinese proposal to hold an informal meeting with its five dialogue partners at the long-stalled nuclear talks before the resumption of a formal round, Yonhap news agency said Saturday citing a Japanese newspaper.
Pyongyang made the commitment during a trip by China's top nuclear envoy Wu Dawei there earlier this week, Wu was quoted as telling a group of Japanese opposition lawmakers traveling to Beijing, it said.
Briefing the Japanese delegation on the results of his trip, Wu said North Korea expressed willingness to hold preliminary talks with the U.S. and join an informal meeting of top representatives to the six-way talks also involving South Korea, Japan and Russia, according to the Mainich Shimbun newspaper.
Wu, China's special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, made a three-day trip to the North through Wednesday during which he met Kim Yong-il, department director of the Central Committee of the North's powerful Workers' Party, and Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun.
The six-way talks, launched in 2003, have not been convened since December 2008 amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, including the tragic sinking of the South Korean navy corvette, the Cheonan, in March.
Host China and its communist ally, North Korea, have been seeking to restart the talks.
The report yet didn’t say the timetable.