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Mr. Kim’s comment, which did not specify when the North would return to the six-nation talks, did not appear to be a step forward from what his government had already said.

Seoul has insisted on finishing the investigation of the sinking -- and if the North is culpable, punishing it -- before engaging the country in denuclearization-for-aid talks. Washington has indicated its agreement. Thus, Mr. Kim’s seeming eagerness to return to talks, if genuine, could disrupt Seoul’s plans.

Mr Hwang, 87, once a close confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, defected to the South in 1997. Pyongyang’s official government website had recently threatened him with death. The alleged plot to kill Mr Hwang was uncovered when the two men, named by the Yonhap news agency as Kim and Tong, crossed into South Korea from Thailand earlier this year, posing as defectors themselves. They were questioned by South Korean officials during the debriefing sessions that await all North Korean refugees who make it to Seoul. A unnamed senior official at Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office told reporters they had said their orders were to “slit the betrayer’s throat”, the Associated Press news agency reports.