BEIJING – North Korea’s visiting premier said yesterday that Pyongyang might be willing to return to nuclear talks, a Chinese spokesman said, following the North’s claim to have expanded its atomic arsenal.

“If conditions are right in the future, North Korea is willing at any time to participate at the six-party talks,” the county’s premier, Pak Pong Ju, told his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, according to a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The spokesman, Liu Jianchao, did not say what those conditions would be. But the North has demanded in the past that America end its “hostile policy” and apologize for having referred to it as an “outpost of tyranny.” The North said last month it was boycotting the talks indefinitely.

Mr. Pak arrived in Beijing amid appeals by Washington for China’s communist leaders to prod their isolated ally back to the bargaining table and suggestions that Pyongyang might face sanctions if it does not cooperate.

Mr. Wen told Mr. Pak the six-nation talks were the “only real, pragmatic way to resolve the nuclear issue,” according to Mr. Liu. The two leaders met at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China’s parliament, in central Beijing.

Mr. Pak also was scheduled to meet China’s president, Hu Jintao. His trip includes a stop in Shanghai, the country’s financial capital.

Secretary of State Rice, visiting Beijing, hinted at sanctions on Monday, saying that if talks fail to produce a non-nuclear North Korea, “We’ll have to look at other options.”

Ms. Rice said she appealed for China to use its status as the North’s main ally and aid donor to draw Pyongyang back to the talks, which also include South Korea, Japan, and Russia.

In Washington, an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the Bush administration believes Beijing can do more to get North Korea back to the talks.

China is believed to supply the North with up to one-third of its food and one quarter of its energy. But Beijing insists it has little influence over Kim Jong Il’s Stalinist regime and has resisted American appeals to pressure its ally.

Analysts say the North’s declaration last month that it has nuclear weapons might prompt China to force Pyongyang back into talks. But they say Beijing might be holding out for an American overture to make the North return willingly.

A North Korean official said last week during a visit to South Africa that it was up to Washington to create the right conditions for new talks.

American and Chinese diplomats met last week in Shanghai with their counterparts from Japan and South Korea to discuss possible steps to get North Korea back to the talks. The North wants aid and a peace treaty with America in exchange for a settlement.

China has organized three rounds of six-nation talks. The dispute flared in late 2002 when Washington said Pyongyang admitted operating a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement that gave it oil and other aid for abandoning nuclear work.

On Monday, the North announced it had increased its nuclear arsenal to counter a possible invasion.

“We have taken a serious measure by increasing [the] nuclear arms arsenal in preparation for any invasion by enemies,” said the North’s Korean Central Broadcasting Station, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

The North has frequently claimed it would increase its nuclear deterrent in response to the perceived threat of invasion by America. But the announcement Monday appeared to be the first time Pyongyang has claimed actually to have done so.

Chinese officials have suggested direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang to break the impasse – an option that America has rejected.

“It is not a U.S.-North Korean issue,” Ms. Rice said. “We are determined that this will be done in a multilateral context.”

Beijing also apparently plans to use the visit to lobby the North to speed up tentative Chinese-style reforms in its decrepit, centrally planned economy.