South Korea has proposed the talks with four other nations that have been trying to negotiate an end to the North's nuclear program for years. The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press.
He said it remains to be seen where or when the meeting - if it materializes
- will take place, but one possibility is on the sidelines of a regional security forum scheduled in Phuket, Thailand in July.
"We have to see how things will play out," said the official, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.
North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. The last round of talks was held in December 2008, when negotiations became deadlocked.
In April this year, North Korea announced it would no longer participate in the talks. The official said the North could be approached for talks, as they are scheduled to attend the Phuket meeting. The communist nation has little interaction with the world, but it does attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, an annual Asia-Pacific security dialogue.
Pyongyang has vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and threatened war to protest sanctions imposed by the U.N. after its nuclear test on May 25. It also test-fired a ballistic missile and is reportedly preparing for another long-range missile launch and a third nuclear test.
The provocations appear to be partly aimed at strengthening the North's internal unity as its ailing leader Kim Jong Il prepares to hand over power to his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.
Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported Saturday that Jong Un is working as the acting chairman of the nation's National Defense Commission, reinforcing his position as the successor. The 26-year-old is supporting his father, who is chairman of the commission, the country's highest post.
"He is focusing on the job as acting chairman. If something happens to our general, he will automatically take the chairman's position," the report quoted a source close to the North Korean leadership as saying.
On Saturday, the regime unleashed a fresh round of threats against the sanctions in what has become an almost daily dose of condemnation, transmitted through its official media.
"The implementation of sanctions means war," North Korea's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
