The Kremlin says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is willing to discuss suspending nuclear weapons tests and production if six-nation talks on its nuclear program are revived.
A Kremlin spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said that during a meeting today, the North Korean leader told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that North Korea was ready to return to the talks without precondition.
The aid-for-disarmament talks, which involve also South Korea, the United States, China, Russia, and Japan collapsed in 2008.
Medvedev met with the North Korean leader in the eastern Siberian city of Ulan-Ude today and afterward praised the talks as “open, substantive.”
He also said that North Korea supports a planned pipeline to carry Russian natural gas to South Korea through the North.
“As far as I understand, North Korea is interested in the implementation of such a trilateral project with the participation of Russia and South Korea,” Medvedev said.
Kim arrived in Russia’s Far East on August 20 on his special armored train, but the itinerary of his trip has been kept secret.