North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has said his country is willing to end its yearlong boycott of stalled six-party nuclear talks and return to the negotiating table in July if the United States showed it respect.
Kim said the communist state, which fears the United States plans to invade it and declared in February it possessed nuclear weapons, was willing to "give up everything" if it received security guarantees.
"If we have security guarantees, there is no reason to have a single nuclear weapon," South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who met Kim in the North Korean capital Pyongyang Friday, quoted him as saying.
"He said if the United States firmly recognizes North Korea as a partner and respects it, North Korea can return to six-party talks, even in July," said Chung on his return home.
The North had never rejected or given up on the talks, it simply wanted to "stand up against the United States because it looked down on us," Chung said.
Washington said this month that Pyongyang had agreed to return to the talks on ending its suspected nuclear weapons program but had set no date. The talks, which last took place in June 2004, bring together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
But Washington said it saw nothing new in Kim's comments.
"We're waiting for North Korean action and a date that they will return to the talks. We have no preconditions on their returning to the table," an administration official said.
"The important point to keep in mind is that until we have a date, we don't have a date," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
"We remain committed to restarting talks. We think it's the right way forward," he told reporters.
In a conciliatory gesture from Washington, Ereli said the U.S. government had given permission for Ri Gun, a senior North Korean diplomat involved in the six-party talks, to attend a conference in the United States. He said the conference was not expected to be the occasion for any bilateral talks.
At Friday's rare meeting with the famously reclusive Kim, Chung pressed him to address growing regional concern over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Kim indicated North Korea was willing to return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the nuclear standoff was resolved and would accept intrusive inspections on its facilities, said Chung, the first senior South Korean official to visit the North's leader since April 2002.
"The joint declaration for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is still valid and it is the last will of President Kim Il-sung," Chung also quoted Kim as saying.
He was referring to a pact signed by the two Koreas in 1992. Kim Il-sung is the North's founder and Kim Jong-il's father.
Chung said he explained a "serious proposal" that South Korea was prepared to offer when the nuclear crisis was resolved. Kim said he would study it and respond to it.