North Korea had thrown doubt on the likelihood of more talks when this week it rejected Japanese involvement in the six country negotiations.

But reacting to reports that a North Korean official had proposed talks in December, China's ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, said: "We agreed to have one round of discussion before the end of the year so December is presumably a good time."

Beijing has repeatedly called on all parties to continue the talks, which have been stalled by Pyongyang's repeated imposition of conditions.

"It is a difficult and complicated issue and it takes time but in the second round we have to make progress," Wang said.

The first round of talks in Beijing in August -- involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States in Beijing -- ended inconclusively. North Korea expressed no interest in continuing the dialogue without US concessions, which Washington rejected.

On top of rejecting Japanese involvement this week, North Korea has raised the stakes by claiming it has completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, which would yield enough plutonium for six nuclear weapons, and suggesting it was building new weapons.

The North also claimed it was building two nuclear reactors which were part of a 1994 agreement with the United States. The accord was frozen because of North Korea's renewed efforts to build nuclear weapons.

WAR.WIRE