North Korea today expressed willingness to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations, it quit six months ago. Pyongyang said it will return to table only after it talks directly to the United States to improve hostile relations. Leader Kim Jong-Il gave the commitment at a meeting yesterday with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the North Korea's official news agency reported. Highlighting the urgency of the issue, a South Korean source said the North appeared to be in the final stages of restoring plutonium-producing plants that it had shut down before abandoning the six-party process. Kim said the North's efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula remain unchanged. Some analysts said the North did not want to snub China, its biggest trade partner and chief energy supplier, by spurning the talks. They said Pyongyang's willingness to scrap its cherished nuclear programme remains questionable.<br/>