(LEAD) N. Korea unready for 'serious' nuke talks: U.S. envoy

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with fresh quotes, details, photo)

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has shown no clear indication that it is ready for "serious and productive" discussions on its nuclear weapons program, a u.s. envoy said Friday.

However, Ambassador Sung Kim, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, did not explicitly deny a South Korean media report that Washington offered to meet with Pyongyang in Beijing, shortly before his trip to Asia this week, saying the U.S. is open to engagement.

"I think the common position of all parties, including China and the U.S., is that we should look for an opportunity to have a substantive engagement with North Korea," Kim told reporters.

Kim added that the U.S. has "made it very clear publicly" it is open to dialogue with North Korea about denuclearization, and that Pyongyang is aware of his Beijing visit, though he declined to discuss details of diplomatic communications.

"The question is not what we are willing to do. The question is whether North Koreans are ready for any serious and productive discussions on the nuclear issue," Kim said.

"I think they understood that this will be an opportunity for a substantive dialogue on the nuclear issue," Kim said, adding that there was no meeting with North Korean officials in Beijing this week.

The six-party talks -- involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan -- have been dormant since late 2008, when Pyongyang walked out of the negotiations and declared the process "dead."

Since its third nuclear test, North Korea has called for a resumption of the talks without preconditions, but South Korea and the U.S. have urged Pyongyang to take actions demonstrating a willingness to fulfill its denuclearization commitments.

In a move that could complicate diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambition, Moscow, which has been at odds with the West over Ukraine, and Pyongyang have been bolstering diplomatic and economic ties at a time when China has shown displeasure with the North's unruly behavior.

North Korea has confirmed the attendance of its leader at a May ceremony in Russia marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday, without mentioning Kim Jong-un's name. If realized, it would be Kim's first foreign trip since taking the helm of North Korea in late 2011.

Despite the North Korean leader's possible trip to Russia, the U.S. envoy said the main thing is that Russia is "strongly opposed to nuclear testing or nuclear activities by North Korea."

China sold no crude oil to North Korea for all of last year, according to Chinese customs data, although it remains unclear whether China genuinely stopped shipping oil to the North.

Asked about the absence of China's oil shipments to North Korea, Kim replied, "We have a very close cooperation and coordination with China on all aspects of our North Korea policy and that includes sanctions enforcement."

"I think that we have a very effective cooperation with China on sanctions enforcement," Kim said.

kdh@yna.co.kr
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