They, along with an earlier splinter, entered into four-party talks with the Nigerien government under Libyan auspices from March to June 2009.

For now, those negotiations, known as the "four-party" talks, are scheduled to resume in New York on Sept. 15.

"Frankly, it is highly unlikely that four-party talks will take place," said Kim Myong Chol, an unofficial spokesman for North Korea in Tokyo.

Washington got him on board by telling him that Mr. Clinton would visit South Korea only if Mr. Kim agreed to the four-party talks.

We have on the table, unanswered by Pyongyang, a proposal for four-party talks with the two Koreas and China on a Korean peace treaty.

But, tellingly, it has not responded to the proposal by Washington and Seoul last April for four-party talks, with China as the fourth, on a Korean peace treaty.

Nor were the Chinese especially helpful about pressing the North Koreans into new four-party talks on the future of the Korean peninsula.

"We've done our part, and now we expect them to be more positive on the four-party talks," the official said.

And there are periodic four-party talks involving China and the United States as well as the two Koreas, aimed at building peace on the Korean peninsula.

The four-party talks, to which North Korea is expected to agree as well, would include the United States, China and both Koreas.