The second round of six-nation talks aimed at ending the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear weapons development is expected to take place on December 17-18 in Beijing, a senior South Korean official said yesterday.

　　"It has not been officially announced, but the general mood is moving in that direction," National Security Adviser Ra Jong-yil said after South Korean media, citing government sources, reported that the meeting was planned for those dates.

　　Ra added that the nuclear talks involving the DPRK, South Korea, Japan, the United States, China, and Russia would be held in Beijing.

　　A six-nation conference hosted by China in August ended with participants merely reiterating their desire for a diplomatic resolution to the yearlong standoff, which began when US officials said the DPRK had acknowledged operating a clandestine nuclear weapons program.

　　US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said yesterday in Tokyo that he hoped follow-up talks could take place in mid-December, "but we do not know for sure."

　　The US envoy said he spoke yesterday with his Japanese counterpart Mitoji Yabunaka about written security assurances that Washington is mulling to break the deadlock with Pyongyang. US President George W. Bush has suggested he is open to the idea of exchanging such guarantees with North Korea - which originally demanded a formal security treaty - if it verifiably and irreversibly dismantles its nuclear weapons program.

　　Diplomatic efforts to resume six-nation talks gained speed after North Korea agreed last month "in principle" to return to the negotiating table.

　　North Korea reaffirmed on Sunday that it seeks a negotiated end to the nuclear dispute. The North Korea added that it is willing to abandon atomic programs when Washington scraps what it called a hostile policy and eliminates threats against it.

　　Pyongyang, which previously insisted on a nonaggression treaty from the United States, also said it would consider Bush's offer of a written security guarantee.

　　Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld assured longtime ally South Korea yesterday that a planned pullback of US troops from the border area with North Korea will strengthen the ability of the American military to respond to an "invasion" from the north.