The visit comes as Seoul is seeking to bring the North's uranium enrichment programme (UEP), which would open a new path for weapons, to the UN Security Council for possible condemnation and further sanctions.

During the two-day trip starting Wednesday, Kim will meet counterpart Seiji Maehara to discuss "pending issues including the North Korean issue and cooperation in regional and global stages," the ministry said in a statement.

China opposes taking the issue to the Security Council, a stance confirmed when its chief envoy to six-party disarmament talks Wu Dawei met South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac in Beijing Thursday, Yonhap news agency said.

During the talks, Wu stuck to Beijing's position that the North's enrichment programme should be handled within the framework of the six-party talks as part of an aid-for-disarmament deal.

"China's basic position is that all issues including the UEP should be discussed at the six-party talks," Yonhap quoted an informed source as saying.

"No agreement was struck at the Wi-Wu meeting, but the talks helped understand each other's position."

Pyongyang showed off its new enrichment programme to visiting US experts last November. It says the plant will be part of a peaceful nuclear power project, but experts say it could easily be reconfigured to produce material for atomic weapons.

The UN Security Council has ordered the North to shut down all atomic activities following two tests of plutonium bombs.

The six-nation talks grouping China, the United States, the two Koreas, Russia and Japan, have been in stasis since December 2008.

China wants them revived as part of a process to ease overall tensions on the Korean peninsula. The United States says the North must mend ties with the South before the nuclear dialogue can resume.

The two Koreas this week held their first talks since the North's shelling of a South Korean island on November 23, which killed four people including two civilians and briefly raised fears of all-out war.

But the talks aimed at easing tensions collapsed, with the North rejecting Seoul's demand for an apology for incidents last year that sent tensions soaring.