North Korea has restated its demand for a non-aggression treaty with the United States to resolve the nuclear crisis amid growing expectations of multilateral talks.
"If the United States dropped its hostile policy toward the DPRK [North Korea] and legally committed itself to non-aggression, the latter would be ready to dispel the US concern," the state-run KCNA news agency announced today.
The KCNA commentary resurrected the non-aggression pact demand that North Korea first made in October, days after the nuclear row erupted when US officials said the North had acknowledged it had a covert atomic programme.
The KCNA report came shortly after a South Korean newspaper reported nuclear crisis talks between North Korea, the United States and China are likely to be held on September 6th in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
The Korea Timesquoted anonymous sources as saying an announcement would be made this week.
A South Korean government official said Seoul was unaware of any schedule for a second round of nuclear talks following a meeting of US, North Korean and Chinese officials in April in Beijing.
But Seoul has been encouraged after diplomatic efforts by China, which sent an envoy to Moscow, Pyongyang and Washington this month to try to build momentum for talks to defuse northeast Asia's biggest security threat.China has floated new talks formats as a way of bridging the gap between North Korea's demand for bilateral talks with the United States and Washington's insistence that only a multilateral approach can make any deal with North Korea work.