In a further sign of a possible thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Washington, two North Korean diplomats are to meet Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico, today.

The meeting is being held at the request of Kim Myong-Gil, a minister at the North Korean mission at the United Nations, and will take place "for most of the day" in Santa Fe, a spokeswoman for Mr Richardson said.

She said that the diplomats had expressed interest in clean energy solutions being developed in New Mexico and stressed that Mr Richardson was not representing the administration of President Barack Obama.

But the meeting will inevitably be seen as a sign that Pyong Yang may be willing to be more conciliatory in its relations with the US and South Korea.

It comes just two weeks after former President Bill Clinton met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in his successful mission to free two US journalists and after further conciliatory signs to South Korea.

Kim Jong Il sent a message of condolence to the family of Kim Dae Jung, the former President of South Korea, amid media reports from the South that a delegation from Pyong Yang would attend his funeral. Earlier this week the North also announced that it would restart several tourism ventures with South Korea.

The meeting comes as the first details emerge of Mr Clinton's visit to Pyong Yang this month, where he met a surprisingly fit-looking Mr Kim. According to the New York Times the men enjoyed "chit chat" during a long dinner together, with an "unexpectedly spry" Mr Kim suggesting that the two men stay up afterwards.

According to the New York Times, Mr Clinton's meeting with the Dear Leader was also at Pyong Yang's behest.

Officials in Washington told the newspaper that Mr Clinton had not asked to see Mr Kim, asking only for a meeting with "appropriate officials".

But his meeting has given the first substantive insight into Mr Kim's health and that of his rule.

After suffering a stroke last year, Mr Kim has looked increasingly frail in official photographs, leading to suggestions that he was about to stand down in favour of one of his sons. However officials accompanying Mr Clinton said that they were surprised at his apparent fitness and at the presence of two long-standing aides who were thought to have been pushed aside.

The men's conversation, however, did nothing to change the US perception of North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the newspaper said.

Mr Richardson, a veteran diplomat who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Mr Clinton, has had a long relationship with the North.

He twice visited the country in the 1990s to secure the release of US citizens held prisoner there and has also met with diplomats from the North Korean UN mission twice before, in 2004 and 2006

In 1996, he negotiated the release of US citizen Evan Hunziker, an eccentric missionary who had been detained for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming the Yalu river.

Two years earlier, he helped free a US military helicopter pilot, Bobby Hall, who was shot down after straying into North Korean airspace.

Any warming in relations could be set back as South Korea prepares to launch its first rocket, just four months after Pyong Yang's own missile launch, which was punished with UN sanctions

The North has warned that it would "closely watch" the international response to South Korea's launch, scheduled for today.

South Korean officials have said that their rocket launch, carrying an observation satellite, is peaceful, and they hope that it will boost the country's aim to become a regional space power.

Yeom Ki-su, a Science Ministry official, said that the two-stage rocket, called KSLV-I, will carry a domestically built satellite aimed at observing the atmosphere and ocean.

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