North Korea is not opposed to six-party talks on its nuclear programme and could return to negotiations when conditions were "mature", the reclusive nation's premier said on Tuesday. Premier Pak Pong-ju's comments, reported by Chinese state TV during a visit to Beijing, were the most conciliatory from North Korea in recent weeks but came just a day after Pyongyang said it had boosted its nuclear arsenal.
North Korea had also said on Monday it was prepared to mobilise its military to thwart any "provocative moves".
Chinese TV quoted Pak as telling Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao: "North Korea's stance on realising non-nuclearisation on the peninsula and peaceful resolution through dialogue has not changed.
"The Korean side does not oppose the six-party talks, nor has it given up on the talks. If conditions are mature, the North Korean side is prepared to join the six-party talks at any time."
The comments came a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended an Asia tour aimed at reviving the stalled talks between North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.
Rice gave her strongest hint yet on Monday that Washington might resort to sanctions against the North, telling a news conference in Beijing that it would have to consider other means if Pyongyang continued to prevaricate over the talks.
In what some analysts saw as a riposte, North Korean media reported late on Monday that Pyongyang had followed through on a threat to increase its nuclear arsenal to help avert a US attack.
"We've taken the serious steps of boosting our nuclear arsenal and we are also prepared to mobilise all of our military force against any provocative moves by the enemy," the North said in a commentary on its official Korean Central Broadcasting.
"It is a signal of their displeasure toward her and the US call on other countries in the region, and China in particular, to ratchet up the pressure against North Korea," said Daniel Pinkston at the California-based Center for Non-proliferation Studies in a telephone interview.
"It is probably to show that they are not going to respond to pressure."
Still, many officials in the region saw Pak's China visit as crucial to what would happen next.
"We are hoping that some sort of progress will be made," top Japanese government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference. "Unless there is progress at this point, North Korea's international position gets worse and worse."