SEOUL - North Korea's chief nuclear envoy will make a rare visit to the United States next month, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Friday, a visit that could bode well for resuming stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

Envoy Kim Kye-gwan was in Beijing this week for discussions on the nuclear talks with officials from the North's closest ally, China. The North has boycotted the talks for a year, but signaled it may soon return to the six-country discussions.

"His visit to the States has been already set," Yonhap quoted a diplomatic source in Beijing as saying.

North Korea has put conditions on its return to the talks including ending U.N. sanctions and also having discussions with the United States on a peace treaty to replace the ceasefire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Sanctions have dealt a blow to North Korea's fragile economy -- which also endured a botched currency reform late last year that sparked inflation and rare civil unrest.

The reclusive North has hosted two-high profile envoys in the past week -- one from China and the other a top U.N. political officer, Lynn Pascoe, who is scheduled to leave Pyongyang on Friday.

North Korean envoy Kim has been a driving force in the nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States since they started in 2003.

His last trip to the United States was about three years ago and led a few months later to North Korea taking its first steps to disable the Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant that produces bomb-grade plutonium.