North Korea has told a US intermediary, Mr Bill Richardson, that it has no intention of building nuclear weapons, he said after three days of talks with senior Pyongyang envoys.
"Ambassador Han told me, and I think this is important, that North Korea has no intention of building nuclear weapons," Mr Richardson told reporters outside his residence in the New Mexico state capital of Santa Fe.
He also said North Korea wants open dialogue and improved ties with the United States in a bid to resolve the escalating crisis over its nuclear program.
Earlier today, North Korea's ambassador to China said his government may end its moratorium on missile tests now that the US has invalidated all agreements between the two countries.
"That moratorium about missile test fire will be no exception now that the United States has made invalid all the agreements reached between the US and DPRK (North Korea)," ambassador Mr Choe Kim-Su said.
Mr Richardson, the Democratic governor of New Mexico, was a diplomatic trouble-shooter under former President Bill Clinton and is now acting as a conduit between Washington and the reclusive communist state.
His talks with Mr Han Song Ryol, a high-ranking member of the North Korean delegation to the United Nations, were requested by Pyongyang and stem from an established relationship between the two.
Mr Richardson has expressed US concern about North Korea's suspected nuclear arms program and its withdrawal yesterday from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Discussions were extended to a third day today as a result.
In a historic summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September, North Korean leader Mr Kim Jong-Il pledged to extend a moratorium on missile tests beyond its original expiry date of 2003.
According to South Korean defence ministry data, North Korea is currently testing Taepodong-1 missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) and developing longer-range Taepodong-2 missiles.
The communist state fired a suspected missile over Japan's main island of Honshu and into the Pacific in 1998, sending shockwaves around the region.
AFP/Reuters