Filed at 12:20 a.m. ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants stalled six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear arms activities to restart before July, a senior Chinese diplomat said, warning that progress was by no means certain.

Those talks bring together North and South Korea, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia, seeking to implement an agreement offering Pyongyang aid in return for nuclear disarmament steps.

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's president said Monday that he wants to achieve "genuine" reconciliation with North Korea through dialogue and renewed his offer of a package of incentives for the North's nuclear disarmament.

The North has recently reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile program. A U.S. State Department spokesman said Friday that the North could rejoin international nuclear disarmament talks in coming weeks.

The highest-ranking U.N. diplomat to visit North Korea in years met Thursday with the communist regime's No. 2 official as part of an international push to get Pyongyang to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks.

U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe sat down with Kim Yong Nam, broadcaster APTN reported from Pyongyang. As head of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the official is second in the chain of command after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

seoul, south korea - a senior u.n. envoy pressed ahead wednesday with international efforts to get north korea back into nuclear disarmament talks, during the world body's first high-level visit to the reclusive state in nearly six years. u.n.

north korea's kim jong il reportedly dispatched his top nuclear envoy to beijing on tuesday to discuss restarting nuclear disarmament talks, a day after pledging pyongyang's commitment to a nuclear-free korean peninsula. kim made the disarmament

seoul, south korea-north korea's kim jong il reportedly dispatched his top nuclear envoy to beijing on tuesday to discuss restarting nuclear disarmament talks, a day after pledging pyongyang's commitment to a nuclear-free korean peninsula. kim

SEOUL, South Korea -- A special Chinese envoy held discussions with North Korean officials on Sunday, state media reported, amid international efforts to persuade the North to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks.

Wang Jiarui, head of the liaison office of China's ruling Communist Party, flew to Pyongyang on Saturday for talks expected to focus on the resumption of stalled six-party negotiations on ending the North's nuclear weapons program.

SEOUL (Reuters) - A senior Chinese Communist Party official will visit Pyongyang next week in what appears to be a move to press North Korea to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks, a South Korean news agency said on Friday.

China, the destitute North's biggest benefactor, is seen as having the most influence on the reclusive state. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told the Chinese premier in October he could return to the nuclear talks if the conditions were right.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's return to the nuclear disarmament process is an essential next step before any discussions about political and economic concessions can begin, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

The American's remarks were a response to nuclear-armed North Korea's repeated call for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War as well as diplomatic relations with the U.S. before it agrees to return to the disarmament negotiations it walked away from the last year.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's president says he is willing to meet with North Korea's leader to discuss its nuclear weapons program despite a recent flare-up in border tensions.

"I am always ready to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Il," President Lee Myung-bak said in an interview with the BBC aired Friday, according to a text released by his office.

"There is no reason not to meet (him) even within this year" if it promotes peace on the Korean peninsula and North Korea's nuclear disarmament, he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said his focus on nuclear disarmament had strengthened U.S. diplomacy in dealing with North Korea and Iran, and he warned Tehran faced "growing consequences" over its nuclear program.

In his State of the Union address to Congress on Wednesday, Obama touched on some of the thorniest foreign policy issues he has faced in the past year, including his effort to develop a new approach toward Iran and North Korea as they expand their nuclear programs.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday accused the South of declaring war by warning earlier this month that it would launch a preemptive strike if it thought its impoverished neighbor was preparing a nuclear attack.

The angry retort from Pyongyang is the latest in what have become increasingly brittle relations between the two Koreas just as the international community tries to lure the North back to nuclear disarmament talks.

SEOUL– North Korea threatened on Friday to cut off all dialogue with the South in a move that could raise tension on the peninsula and cloud the efforts of regional powers to push Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.

North Korea, which has sent mixed messages recently, said its threat to cut off dialogue was in response to South Korean media reports this week that Seoul was revising its contingency plans for what it would do if Pyongyang's Korea's leadership falls.

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday for a final discussion before leaving China for South Korea.

The president and Mr. Wen will hold a bilateral meeting and attend a working lunch together.

Mr. Obama will then tour part of the Great Wall of China before flying to Seoul, the final nation in his eight-day Asian tour.

Tuesday in Beijing, Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to work together on climate change, nuclear disarmament and other global issues.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea called on Monday for direct talks with its long-time foe, the United States, and gave the clearest signal so far it was ready to return to nuclear disarmament talks it has boycotted for almost a year.

The comments follow last week's rare visit by a North Korean official to the United States and what has been a "charm" offensive by the ostracized state which some analysts say is looking increasingly desperate for finance and aid.

Several eyewitnesses and news reports say Israeli and Iranian representatives spoke directly during a multi-national conference on nuclear disarmament last month in Egypt.

newspaper reported Israeli and Iranian delegates directly engaged each other during a meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament held behind closed doors at a Cairo hotel last month.

The Reuters news agency reported an Israeli official who wished to remain unidentified said the Cairo talks were unusual in that they featured a direct dialogue.

President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a surprise choice that came less than nine months after he took office and which he said wasn't so much a recognition of his accomplishments as it was a "call to action" for the future.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited the 48-year-old president's creation of a "new climate in international politics" and his work on nuclear disarmament. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," the committee said.

New York - The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Thursday a resolution that allows the body to apply measures on violators of nuclear obligations if their actions are determined threats to the world's peace and security. The 15-nation council began a meeting on nuclear disarmament by adopting the resolution pushed forward by the United States. US President Barack Obama called for the vote immediately after he opened the one-day session.

BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council summit on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament opens at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Thursday.

The following is a brief introduction to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT):

In the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union stepped up their nuclear testing in a bid to improve their nuclear arsenals. Seeking to maintain their respective nuclear advantages, the two superpowers began to push for negotiations on a treaty that would stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

* UN council seen passing nuclear resolution unanimously

* Draft text doesn't name Iran or North Korea

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will chair a historic meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that is expected to ask nations with nuclear weapons to scrap their deadly arsenals.

When the leaders of the 15-nation council gather at U.N. headquarters in midtown Manhattan, Obama will preside over the meeting, the first time a U.S. president has chaired a Security Council summit since the elite panel was established in 1946.