ANALYSIS - N.Korea's broken economy the key to nuclear talks

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - A promise by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to improve the state's broken economy is forcing him to ask for massive aid and may even bring him back to nuclear talks that Pyongyang once declared dead.

The North, which last month sent an envoy to the United States on a charm offensive, on Monday gave its clearest signal yet that it was ready to return to the six-way, disarmament-for-aid talks.

Plenty of obstacles remain to reviving the discussions, not least the fact that Washington wants Pyongyang to recommit to giving up its nuclear activities before negotiations.

"It is still too early to tell if the North is desperate enough to make the strategic decision about a change in its nuclear arms programme," said a diplomatic source in Seoul.

But Kim, it appears, has backed himself into a corner after having pledged to turn North Korea into a "strong and prosperous nation" by 2012 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of his father and the state's founder, Kim Il-sung.

Meeting that promise and Kim's need to pay off cadres to win their support for a generational change in Asia's only communist dynasty help explain why he abruptly stopped raising tensions with the international community after numerous missile launches this year and a nuclear test in May.

"This puts pressure on the regime to get as much aid as it can, as fast as it can," said B.R. Myers, an expert on the North's state ideology at Dongseo University in South Korea.

"To say that it will be a strong and prosperous country and to say that will be achieved by 2012, and to raise expectations, is actually a very risky thing."