Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration will accept North Korea’s invitation for a senior U.S. official to visit Pyongyang for talks to bring the nuclear-armed regime back to disarmament negotiations, a White House official said today.

No date has been given for a visit by U.S. special representative for North Korean policy Stephen Bosworth, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision hasn’t been announced. The secretive regime extended an invitation to Bosworth three months ago. Until recently, the Obama administration said it would engage in talks only within multinational negotiations known as the six-party talks, which also involve South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

An August visit to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton to secure the release of two detained U.S. journalists cooled tensions after months of threatening rhetoric and provocative missile and nuclear tests by North Korea since the start of the year.

The decision by the administration to send Bosworth to engage in direct talks is an effort to revive the six-party discussions to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic aid and improved ties.

The negotiations stalled last year and Kim Jong Il’s regime formally quit the forum to protest the United Nations condemnation of its April 5 firing of a Taepodong-2 rocket over the Sea of Japan.

Missile Tests

Since then, North Korea fired more than a dozen missiles and detonated a second nuclear device in defiance of the international community, prompting the UN Security Council to impose sanctions in June.

The sanctions are intended to crimp the regime’s ability to move money around the world to finance its nuclear and missile efforts. The sanctions also aim to prevent North Korea from shipping illicit nuclear material by sea.

North Korea, which U.S. scientists and intelligence analysts estimate has several nuclear warheads, said in a letter to the Security Council in two months ago it was in the final stages of “weaponizing” plutonium and has almost succeeded in highly enriching uranium, the second means for creating a nuclear device.

To contact the reporters on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net; Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 19:11 EST