SEOUL, Oct 4: US special envoy James Kelly met communist North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s number two on Friday in a move underscoring the importance Pyongyang puts on restarting dialogue with Washington after a two-year hiatus.

The North’s official KCNA news agency said Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, paid a courtesy call on Kim Yong-nam, the nominal head of state, with other members of the US delegation.

KCNA gave no further details on the talks, which come as North Korea has embarked on tentative economic reforms and pushed its long-closed diplomatic door ajar.

Kelly held a second day of talks in Pyongyang as the most senior US official to visit North Korea since President George W. Bush said in January the country was part of an “axis of evil”.

Kelly, who arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday and returns to Seoul on Saturday, did not take reporters with him. So it was difficult to find out more about his meeting with Kim, who heads the presidium of the country’s parliament and is second only to Kim Jong-il in the ruling hierarchy.

“We may be witnessing the beginning of an improvement in Washington-Pyongyang ties,” said Lho Kyong-soo, professor of international politics at Seoul National University. He said there were bound to be blocks along the way and many tough demands on both sides.

Senior South Korean officials said it was likely North Korea would give some ground to sustain the diplomatic momentum, although it was difficult to predict exactly where.

“North Korea knows well what the position of the Bush administration is,” Assistant Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo told reporters in the South Korean port city of Pusan, venue of the Asian Games.—Reuters