"Six-party talks for a solution to the nuclear issue between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US will be held in Beijing soon thanks to the former's initiative and peaceful efforts," a foreign ministry spokesman said through Pyongyang's state media.

Details and timing of the talks are still being discussed, but US and South Korean officials have said they could come as early as this month. Other officials have mentioned September as a target date for talks.

Pyongyang said Friday it had accepted the six-way forum for talks to include North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States.

It claimed the six-way forum for talks was its own idea, and said Washington had accepted one-on-one talks as part of the multilateral meeting.

"It is an expression of our utmost magnanimity as the proposal has come from the stand to solve the nuclear issue between the two countries peacefully through dialogue in any case," the North's spokesman said.

He said the talks would "clearly show the world community whether the US has a true willingness to make a switchover in its policy towards the DPRK or not."

South Korea's assistant unification minister Shin Eon-Sang told Yonhap news agency Monday that talks could take place in early September.

"So far nothing has been decided on where or when the six-way talks are to take place and in what form North Korea and the United States would hold dialogue, but the first round of talks are expected to be held in Beijing in early September," he said.

Shin also said the talks are likely to be dominated by how and in what form the United States provides a non-aggression commitment to North Korea.

Pyongyang claims Washington is intent on launching an invasion to overthrow its communist regime, and has insisted that the United States first offer security guarantees before it will address the nuclear issue.

US officials have said Washington had no intention of attacking the Stalinist state but they have not ruled out the military option.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October when Washington accused the Stalinist state of reneging on a 1994 bilateral nuclear freeze accord by setting up a clandestine atomic program based on enriched uranium.

Following the October revelations, the 1994 deal swiftly unraveled and the United States stopped fuel deliveries. North Korea then upped the stakes, kicking out IAEA monitors and withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation treaty.

Pyongyang has since claimed it has reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods in Yongbyon.

Washington believes North Korea had extracted enough weapons-grade plutonium for about two nuclear bombs before it froze its Yongbyon plant. Reprocessing the fuel rods could provide enough additional material for around six bombs within months, according to analysts.

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