N. Korea Agrees to More Nuclear Talks

North Korea confirmed Saturday that it was willing to hold six-nation talks early next year on ending its nuclear weapons program.

China’s top diplomat on the nuclear issue, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, met North Korean leaders in Pyongyang during a three-day trip that ended Saturday, the North’s official news agency, KCNA, reported.

The news agency, quoting an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, said both sides agreed to set up a second round of the negotiations.

“Both sides ... expressed their willingness to make appropriate preparations so that talks can resume at an early date next year to continue the process for a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue,” the report quoted the spokesman as saying.

KCNA was monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

The U.S., China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas held a first round of talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in Beijing in August. The meetings ended without much progress or an agreement on a date for new talks.

The North Korean spokesman was quoted as reiterating Pyongyang’s demands that the nuclear dispute be resolved through a “package deal based on simultaneous actions.”

“The main problem in preparing for the next round of six-nation talks is the United States’ refusal to make a shift in its policy and its insistence that we disarm ourselves by abandoning our nuclear program first,” KCNA said. “If the United States sticks to this position, it will break the foundation of dialogue.”

North Korea says it will dismantle its program in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee and aid. But the U.S. wants North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions before Washington makes any concessions.