Kim, in talks with a senior South Korean official, said Friday that North Korea could return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks as early as July should the United States "acknowledge and respect" the North as a dialogue partner.

He also said the Stalinist country would rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and open up to international inspectors once the nuclear standoff with the outside world was resolved.

The reclusive leader, who rarely receives visitors from outside, made the remarks when he met South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young in Pyongyang during the final moments of a four-day visit by Chung.

Analysts said the fact that Kim received a South Korean envoy for the first time in more than three years indicated that he had already made up his mind to return to the talks, barring further verbal attacks from Washington.

Kim was also apparently encouraged by the outcome of a June 10 summit between US President George W. Bush and his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-Hyun, who pledged to resolve the nuclear standoff through diplomacy.

Chon Hun-Joon of the Korean Institute for National Unification said Kim was extending an olive branch to Washington, hoping that the United States may further soften its stance toward Pyongyang.

"The ball is now in the US court ... If the United States gives it a friendly nudge, it (North Korea) will immediately come back to the dialogue table," Chon predicted.

He said that North Korea was indicating that it had tested the limits of its game of nuclear brinkmanship and was aware of the dangers of going too far.

"North Korea gives a top priority to improving ties with Washington, and it knows very well that for this purpose it should not play the nuclear card beyond certain limits," he said.

"There have been talks of the North seeking to carry out a nuclear test and displaying its nuclear bombs, but these would hardly become reality," he said.

Kim Sung-Han of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security said it was a "positive" development that Kim said the North would return to the NPT and receive international inspections once the standoff is resolved.

Kim Jong-Il was quoted as telling Chung: "Tell them to come and look. We have no reason to hide anything away."

"He sent the ball back into the US court by reaffirming the principle that the Korean peninsula should be free of nuclear weapons and made positive remarks on the issue of verification," Kim Sung-Han said.

But he cautioned that the resumption of the six-party talks would only be "a beginning of the game, not an end".

Other analysts said that Kim's comments did not constitute a breakthrough.

However, Paik Hak-Soon of the private Sejong Institute noted that the North Korean leader had indicated that a second inter-Korean summit would take place "at an appropriate time".

The inter-Korean summit of June 2005 set in motion a new era of engagement between the two Koreas, giving rise to increased economic and cultural exchanges. Kim pledged then to attend another meeting at an "appropriate" date.

"It is necessary for the two Koreas to hold a second inter-Korean summit to find a breakthrough in the nuclear issue," he said.

The United States reacted cautiously to the reported comments and said it was checking them with officials in South Korea.

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