NKorea ready to impose WMD moratorium, resume nuke talks

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North Korea has expressed readiness to impose a moratorium on tests of weapons of mass-destruction and resume the stalled six-party talks on its nuclear programme, at a summit with Russia held at a secret facility in Siberia.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday held crucial talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a secret military facility in East Siberia where the reclusive North Korean won a key energy deal and agreed to go ahead with international talks on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

"We have directed our ministries to set up an ad hoc commission to determine the specific parameters of bilateral cooperation on gas transit via North Korea and, therefore, to get the Republic of Korea join this project," Medvedev said in his televised statement after talks with Kim.

North Korea said it is ready to resume the six-party talks on the settlement of the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula without preconditions and also agreed to impose a moratorium on tests of WMD, Russian presidential spokeswoman Natalia Timakova was quoted as saying by state-run Rossiya 24 news channel.

Medvedev received Kim at the secret Soviet-era military facility 'Sosnovy Bor' near the capital of the Republic of Buryatia on his first visit to Russia in nine years that comes at a time of deepening economic hardship for his internationally-isolated nation.

According to Russian officials who made preparations for the meeting, the two leaders also discussed the settlement of North Korea's USD 11 billion debt to Russia.

Russia's Channel One TV noted that Sosnovy Bor (Pine Forest) was the Eastern Headquarter of the Soviet Supreme Military Command.

The construction of a gas pipeline between Russia and South Korea via communist North Korea will promote an atmosphere of trust between Seoul and Pyongyang, say Russian political analysts.

The reclusive North Korean leader entered Russian territory on Saturday aboard his personal train.

Large scale economic projects, like the construction of a gas pipeline between Russia and South Korea via the DPRK; the linking up of the trans-Korean railway with the trans-Siberian line; the construction of a transmission line from the Far East to the Republic of Korea, can serve as motivating factors in rejuvenating relations between the two countries.