In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda says his country believes North Korea is seeking to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear arms program.

Hosoda said in a news conference Thursday that it is hard to tell what the exact intentions of Pyongyang are, but it seems that the communist state is seeking to benefit from a fresh round of nuclear discussions by making a diverse range of statements.

The top Japanese official also said that Tokyo has recently detected signs that suggest that Pyongyang may be preparing to conduct a missile test. Hosoda stressed that the international community must come up with measures to deal with such a contingency.