North and South Korea said yesterday they wanted to revive six-nation efforts aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s atomic programme, after their envoys held unexpected and rare talks in Indonesia.

The meeting between South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac and his counterpart from the North, Ri Yong-Ho, also offered hope the rival nations may be willing to start improving ties after more than a year of high tensions.

“I had a very constructive and useful conversation with my counterpart,” Mr Wi told reporters after the two-hour meeting at a luxury resort in Bali on the sidelines of an East Asian ministerial summit.

“There was an agreement between South and North Korea to make various efforts for the resumption of negotiations on denuclearisation.”

Mr Ri issued similarly upbeat comments after what were the first-ever direct talks on nuclear issues between the two sides outside the six-nation format. “We have agreed to make joint efforts to resume the six-party talks at the earliest possible date,” he said.

The six-nation talks, involving the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia, are a tortuous process aimed at convincing the North to give up its nuclear programme in return for diplomatic and economic rewards.

The last round ended in a familiar stalemate in December 2008. The North formally abandoned them in April 2009, blaming alleged US hostility for its withdrawal, and staged its second nuclear test a month later.

North Korea had previously refused to discuss its nuclear programme with the South alone, but finally relented after lobbying from various six-nation parties.

Six-party host China had been pushing for an inter-Korean nuclear meeting, followed by US-North Korean talks, to pave the way for a resumption of the full dialogue. US officials travelling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Bali also said Washington had been “deeply engaged” with the South over the past few weeks to bring the two sides together.