Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka expressed willingness Monday to resume talks with Pyongyang toward normalizing relations between Japan and North Korea.

His motion reflected Japan's optimistic attitude toward progress made in a round of talks Monday between the United States and North Korea about Pyongyang's missile program. North Korea agreed Sunday, after six days of talks with the U.S. at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, not to go ahead with a possible plan to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile as long as the two sides continue their dialogue.

Speaking at a regular news conference, the government's chief spokesman said that he is pinning hope on a nonpartisan delegation of Japanese legislators to North Korea to pave the way for resuming the halted normalization talks.

In a bid to reopen the talks, which have been stalled since 1992, former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, with strong backing from the government, had planned to lead the mission in late June. But it was postponed indefinitely. Nonaka's comments suggest that the trip could happen soon.

"The trip by Murayama's group will be the first step toward paving the way for (official) government-to-government talks," Nonaka said, noting that the government hopes to begin preparatory work for official talks following the mission's visit.

Japan froze food aid and suspended negotiations to normalize diplomatic ties with North Korea after Pyongyang launched a three-stage rocket, part of which flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean in August last year.

Obuchi, who is in Auckland attending a two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, said Japan will wait and see for the time being whether North Korea actually freezes its possible plan to test-launch the missile, which, if extant, is believed to have a range of up to 6,000 km.

Japan currently has no diplomatic relations with North Korea.