Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea will return to six-nation talks on dismantling its nuclear program if its conditions for taking part are met, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said.

``We will go to the negotiating table any time if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks,'' the state-run Korean Central News Agency cited Kim as saying late yesterday in the capital, Pyongyang.

The North Korean leader said he wanted the U.S. to show ``sincerity,'' the news agency reported. Kim made the comments at a meeting yesterday in Pyongyang with Wang Jiarui, the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department, the agency said.

North Korea announced on Feb. 10 that it has nuclear bombs and won't return to the talks that also involve the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia. North Korea has said it won't take part unless it receives U.S. guarantees that it won't attack and gets pledges of oil supplies and other economic aid.

North Korea, which needs donations to help feed its 22 million people, may already have 10 nuclear weapons, the Brussels- based International Crisis Group estimated in November.

``Time is not on our side,'' U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill told reporters today at a meeting in Seoul. ``This cannot be an open-ended process.''

He declined to comment on Kim's statement. Nor would he set a deadline for North Korea to return to the talks.

Resolving Issues

North Korea has never opposed the six-party talks, the Korean Central News Agency cited Kim as telling Wang. North Korea stands for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and seeks a peaceful solution through dialogue, it cited Kim as saying.

Wang told Kim that China wants all parties to resolve the nuclear issue through talks while North Korea's reasonable security concerns are respected, China's official Xinhua news agency reported from Pyongyang late yesterday. China wants the six- party meetings to start as soon as possible, Wang said.

China is North Korea's closest ally, supplying the impoverished nation with fuel, machinery and food that account for about 40 percent of its imports, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Web site.

North Korea on Feb. 10 said it suspended its participation in the talks for an indefinite period, because the Bush administration has a policy ``not to coexist'' with the communist country, the Korean Central News Agency reported at the time. North Korea has weapons that will remain as a ``nuclear deterrent for self-defense,'' the news agency said.

`Remaining Ready'

The U.S., China, Russia, South Korea and Japan have called on the country to return to negotiations. North Korea should come back to the talks unconditionally, Hiroyuki Hosoda, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said today at a briefing in Tokyo.

``The United States remains ready to resume six-party talks at an early date without preconditions,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Feb. 18 in Washington.

The impasse over the nuclear program began in October 2002 when North Korea acknowledged developing nuclear arms, violating a 1994 international accord.

The U.S. government has consistently said North Korea won't be compensated for scrapping an illegal program.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week the U.S. and its allies don't want to resort to ``other measures'' to force compliance from North Korea.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 22, 2005 02:16 EST