Japan’s Kyodo news agency says that North Korea told the United States earlier this month that it had procured aluminum pipes which can be used to build uranium-enriching centrifuges from a third country.

Quoting diplomatic sources Monday, the Japanese news agency said the North’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-kwan made the revelation when he met his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill for a working-group meeting on normalizing bilateral ties earlier this month in Geneva.

It marks the first time for Pyongyang to reveal details on its suspected uranium enrichment program.

According to the report, Kim did not say which country supplied the pipes, but it has been reported in the past that Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had provided centrifuges and designs to North Korea.

Many experts have also said it's possible that North Korea procured a large quantity of aluminum pipes from Russia.

Kyodo assessed that Pyongyang’s recent revelation suggests that the communist state is keen to compromise with the United States for the remainder of U.S. President George W. Bush's term.