UN chief Kofi Annan on Tuesday joined an international chorus of praise for North Korea's decision to return to six-party talks on abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
"The secretary general welcomes today's announcement that China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United States have agreed to a resumption of the six-party talks," Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
"He (Annan) hopes the talks can be reconvened soon, and that they will yield positive results leading to lower tensions in the region," the spokesman added.
Pyongyang, which earlier this month carried out its first-ever atom-bomb tests, has agreed to resume talks and reaffirmed a pledge to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees and other concessions, US trouble-shooter Christopher Hill told reporters in Beijing.
The talks -- involving China, North and South Korea, Russia, the United States and Japan -- could restart as soon as November, Hill said.
The breakthrough came barely two weeks after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose wide-ranging sanctions on North Korea designed to starve its military of funds and materiel needed for its arms programs and to prevent Pyongyang from selling its weapons know-how to terrorists or other states.