It announced it was pulling out of six-party talks with South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia in what analysts said could be a tactic to wring better conditions at a time when US attention is focused on Iran's nuclear programmes.
Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's international liaison department, is to fly to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, apparently to try to coax the North back to the negotiating table.
"Don't expect too much, because it's a visit that's been planned for a long time," said a Western diplomat. "But Wang will presumably be delivering some sort of message from the Chinese."
In a sign that Pyongyang may indeed be ready to bargain after raising the stakes, the North's envoy to the United Nations told a South Korean newspaper that a return to talks was possible if the United States pledged coexistence and non-interference.
Deputy Ambassador Han Song-ryol told the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper that the North wanted a US assurance that there would be substantive results from negotiations.
"We need some kind of justification if we were to return to the talks," Han said in the article published on Saturday.
He said recent statements by US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice undermined the position of those in Pyongyang who advocated dialogue because they indicated a plan to overturn the North's government by force.