Factbox: Key political risks to watch on the Korean peninsula

SEOUL (Reuters) - Conciliatory gestures by both Koreas have raised hopes that long-stalled nuclear talks are back on the cards, but Seoul and Washington insist Pyongyang must first take concrete measures to disable its atomic program.

Kim Jong-il made his fourth trip abroad in the past 15 months at the end of August, visiting Russia for the first time in around a decade as the impoverished North seeks economic aid and attempts to boost its regional friendships.

Kim has promised to consider suspending nuclear arms tests and production if international talks on Pyongyang's atomic program resume.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity over the past few months which has eased tensions on the divided peninsula and raised hopes that aid-for-disarmament talks will restart. The United States ended two days of meetings with North Korea in late October sounding upbeat about an eventual return to wider talks on ending Pyongyang's atomic work, but saying there was no immediate breakthrough.

South Korea has shown signs of loosening its hardline policy toward its destitute neighbor, authorizing some aid flows and clearing the way for a flurry of humanitarian and political visits across the border.

Still, the two sides remain as far apart as ever in a row over a joint tourist resort in the North, and Seoul demands Pyongyang apologize for two deadly attacks last year.

The North Korean issue is not a big part of the domestic political scene in the South, although both the ruling party's chief and frontrunner for the presidential vote next year say Seoul should be more accommodating to Pyongyang.