A leading Japanese daily says North Korea requested that South Korea buy the North’s unused nuclear fuel rods.

The Asahi Shimbun quoted several sources of the six-way nuclear talks as saying on Friday that the North made the request when top nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met in Beijing late last month.

The report stated that the North’s top nuclear envoy Ri Yong-ho asked the South’s delegation if the South would be willing to buy around 14-thousand unused fuel rods if the North agrees to meet preconditions for resuming the six-way nuclear talks, including suspending its uranium enrichment activities. The amount of fuel rods mentioned by the North equals roughly 102 tons of uranium.

Ri’s comment marks the first time the North has named a price for carrying out preconditions sought by the South, U.S. and Japan on restarting the stalled nuclear negotiations.

The Asahi said, however, that South Korea rejected the North’s offer in line with an accord with the U.S. and Japan under which the three countries agreed not to negotiate with the North on preconditions for getting the six-way talks back on track.