Global Security Newswire, 24 Aug 2011.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday said his regime was open to negotiating a moratorium on nuclear-weapon trials and manufacturing within the framework of a relaunched multinational aid-for-denuclearization process, Reuters reported

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il walk during their summit on Wednesday in Siberia. Kim said his government was ready to discuss suspending nuclear-weapon production and testing once six-party talks on his nation's nuclear program resume (Dmitry Astakhov/Getty Images).

Kim made his offer in a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the town of Sosnovy Bor in Siberia, Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said.

"Kim Jong Il expressed readiness to return to six-party talks without preconditions. In the course of the talks the North Koreans will be ready to resolve the issue of imposing a moratorium on testing and production of missile and nuclear weaponry," she said.

Kim's proposal is aimed at boosting momentum toward resumption of the six-nation negotiations that were last held in December 2008. The talks encompass China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States. The format proposes to reward the Stalinist state's phased shuttering of its nuclear program with timed infusions of foreign assistance and international security guarantees.

Pyongyang pulled out of the negotiations in spring 2009 and shortly afterward detonated its second nuclear test device. Last November, the North Korean regime revealed it had established a uranium enrichment program, which could give it a second avenue for producing weapon-grade material; Pyongyang has claimed the uranium would only be put to peaceful use.

Seoul and Washington want the Stalinist state to suspend all nuclear weapons work before talks begin again and to permit International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country to verify the freeze. Kim's offer to Medvedev, though, would indicate that he sees suspension taking place only after the six-party talks are under way again 

Ahead of the summit, the Kremlin in released remarks said, "Much attention will be paid to the topic of an early resumption of six-party talks to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," Reuters reported.

"Russia has consistently advocated a peaceful, political and diplomatic solution to this problem, for the restoration of dialogue and cooperation between North and South Korea," the statement said.

Reactions were muted in Seoul, where officials and observers had been looking for North Korea to specifically address its uranium enrichment operation, the Associated Press reported.

"The North has weaponized plutonium, and enriched uranium is something that can be proliferated in an easier manner," said Seoul-based issue expert Yang Moo-jin.

South Korea's senior representative to the six-nation talks, Wi Sung-lac, is scheduled to visit China on Thursday for discussions with his Chinese opposite, Wu Dawei, on prospects for relaunching the nuclear talks, Agence France-Presse reported.

"The two sides will review the North Korean nuclear issue and situation on the Korean Peninsula and will exchange a wide range of views of ways to move forward," the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in released remarks.

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