No more nuclear tests: N. Korea

Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said Pyongyang doesn't plan to carry out any more nuclear tests and expressed regret about the country's first-ever atomic detonation last week, South Korean news reports said yesterday.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 people gathered in Pyongyang's central Kim Il Sung square yesterday to "hail the success of the historic nuclear test", according to the North's official media.

Kim told Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan that "we have no plans for additional nuclear tests", Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Beijing. The North Korean leader told the Chinese visitors "he is sorry about the nuclear test", the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo daily reported, citing a diplomatic source in China.

The North Korean leader also raised the possibility the country would return to arms talks. "If the US makes a concession to some degree, we will also make a concession to some degree, whether it be bilateral talks or six-party talks," Kim was quoted as telling a Chinese envoy, the newspaper reported.

In an interview with the Associated Press in Washington, US President George W. Bush refused to comment on North Korea's reported apology, saying he hadn't had a chance to discuss the issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who was in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials on the nuclear standoff.

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso yesterday said that he has unconfirmed information that North Korea is not planning a second nuclear test, Kyodo News agency reported.

The Chinese delegation led by Tang met Kim on Thursday and returned to Beijing later that day.

China is viewed as a key nation in efforts to persuade the North to disarm, as it is the isolated communist nation's main trading partner and provides almost all of its oil. Government advisers have called for a reduction of critical oil and food supplies to North Korea.

Meeting with Condoleezza Rice in Beijing yesterday, Tang said his trip had "not been in vain". Chinese officials also expressed hope that the North would return to arms talks that it has boycotted since last year in anger over US financial restrictions.

The options Beijing is considering mark a break from even the recent past in which China has preferred to use incentives rather than threats with Pyongyang. But the October 9 nuclear test further frayed already damaged ties and strengthened the hand of critics who believe Beijing should take a harder line against a North Korea they say has ignored Chinese interests. Yesterday, all four major Chinese state-owned banks and British-owned HSBC Corp said they have stopped financial transfers to the North a step beyond what the UN sanctions require and a likely blow to a weak economy that relies on China as a link to the world financial system.

US Defense Department officials said the US Navy was tracking a North Korean cargo ship heading south from the Korean Peninsula.