Kim met with senior Chinese Communist Party official Wang Jiarui in the North Korean capital on Monday and Wang conveyed a "verbal personal message" from Chinese President Hu Jintao, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said early Tuesday.

KCNA did not report the contents of Hu's message, but it may include a call on North Korea to rejoin the stalled six-party denuclearization talks and an invitation for Kim to visit China, as diplomatic sources suggested earlier.

Kim expressed gratitude for the message, and asked Wang, head of the party's International Department, to convey his regards to Hu, according to KCNA.

Kim had "a cordial and friendly conversation" with Wang before hosting a dinner for Wang and his entourage, it said.

Wang is expected to return to Beijing on Tuesday. He arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday in what was seen as a mission to jumpstart the six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Observers believe China, chair of the six-party talks, wants to make Wang's visit an impetus to speed up coordination toward the resumption of the multilateral dialogue involving the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

North Korea pulled out of the six-party talks in April last year in protest over the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of a rocket launch it conducted the same month. The launch was widely seen as a long-range missile test.

North Korea fueled the tension by conducting a second nuclear test in May. The moves resulted in increased U.N. sanctions on the country.