Kim, making his first visit to Beijing since he took office last October, will meet his counterpart Yang Jiechi, Premier Wen Jiabao and Wang Jiarui, head of the communist party's international department, a ministry spokesman said.

They will discuss economic and trade cooperation projects as well as the North's nuclear programme during Kim's three day visit.

The North sparked regional security fears last November by disclosing an apparently functional uranium enrichment plant, which could give it a second way to make atomic bombs in addition to its plutonium stockpile.

China, Pyongyang's sole major ally, is trying to revive a six-party forum on the North's nuclear disarmament which it has hosted since 2003.

It says the uranium issue should be handled at that forum and last month blocked publication of a United Nations report criticising the programme.

South Korea, however, wants the UN Security Council to address the uranium programme before any fresh six-party talks are held.

The discussions were last held in December 2008. The North abandoned them in April 2009 and staged its second nuclear test a month later.

Earlier this month the North said it was willing to return to the six-party forum "without any precondition", and to discuss its uranium enrichment plant and the possible suspension of nuclear tests.

Foreign Minister Kim at the time rejected the offer.

"This is insufficient and does not fit the position of the other countries that the right conditions (for talks) should be created," he told reporters.

The forum groups the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan as well as China.