Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Monday he believed North Korea was willing to make progress in the next round of six-party talks aimed at persuading it to dismantle its nuclear arms programme.
Analysts are sceptical about prospects for progress, however, given that neither of the main protagonists - the United States and North Korea - are thought likely to compromise ahead of the US presidential elections in November.
China has proposed holding a third round of talks aimed at resolving the crisis over North Korea's nuclear arms projects during the week of June 21 in Beijing, and Japanese media reports have said June 23 is the likely starting date.
"I got the feeling that the North Koreans are willing to make progress ahead of the six-party talks," Koizumi told a small group of foreign reporters, but did not elaborate.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told Koizumi at talks in Pyongyang last month that North Korea wanted to be nuclear-free and intended to use the multilateral forum to achieve that goal, the Japanese prime minister said on the eve of his departure for a Group of Eight leaders' summit in the United States.
The crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear arms programmes erupted in October 2002, when US officials said North Korea had disclosed it was working on a secret programme to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of an international agreement.
Working-level talks last month among Japan, China, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States yielded scant progress.
North Korea, in need of aid for its struggling economy, wants compensation for giving up its nuclear arms programme, with a deal for a freeze as a first step. The United States wants Pyongyang to abandon its programmes completely and unconditionally.
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