Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young, who met Kim in Pyongyang on Friday, told a cabinet meeting Monday that Kim offered to dismantle his entire arsenal of short- and long-range missiles, the official said.

"The precondition is that if relations are normalized and become friendly, then at that stage North Korea is willing to dismantle its missiles," said Kim Chang-Ho, the information minister, who attended the cabinet meeting.

He quoted Chung as saying that the North Korean leader was ready to destroy all its missiles from short-range to long-range ones.

Washington has denounced Pyongyang as a leading global proliferator of missiles and missile technology. The cash-strapped communist state has refused to stop missile exports, a major source of hard currency earnings.

North Korea has short-range Scud missiles targeting South Korea and intermediate-range Rodong missiles that can hit targets up to 1,300 kilometres (812 miles) away including most parts of Japan.

Pyongyang stunned the world in 1998 by test-launching over Japan a Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers.

During the talks in Pyongyang, the North Korean leader also said his country could return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks as early as July should Washington "acknowledge and respect" it as a dialogue partner.

North Korea has demanded that what it calls a US "hostile" policy be dropped before reviving the talks, which have been stalled for a year.

US envoy Christopher Hill, who was briefed by Chung on his meeting with Kim, said on his departure for Washington earlier Monday that Washington was still looking for a date for a resumption of the talks.

"Until we have a date, unless we have a date, we don't have talks," he said.

He also said that for progress to be made, the talks would have to be effective.

On Sunday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was ready to listen to North Korea when it set a date for returning to the talks.

"The North Koreans love to make excuses for why they can't come to the six-party talks," Rice told Fox News Sunday from Jerusalem.

"And when they're ready to set the date, we're ready to listen."

North Korea has been locked in a standoff with the United States over its nuclear weapons program.

The United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan met for three inconclusive rounds of talks in Beijing prior to the North Korean boycott.

The nuclear standoff flared in October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of operating a nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 agreement.

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