The Japanese government is seeking to suspend for one more year work on a multi-billion dollar nuclear reactor project in North Korea.

Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said Thursday that Tokyo's latest move is aimed at bringing North Korea to the six-party negotiation table by leaving open the possibility of the much-needed energy aid as compensation for its nuclear dismantlement.

The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, the body responsible for overseeing the reactor construction project, announced in December a one-year suspension of the reactor project amid escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Despite multilateral efforts to resolve the North's nuclear standoff, no significant progress has been made. Pyongyang has recently voiced skepticism about the need for further talks on the issue.

South Korea and Japan are in charge of providing 90 percent of the expenditures needed to build two lightwater reactors in the North. As of June, South Korea had invested one point one billion dollars and Japan 390 million dollars into the project.