At the meeting in New York, Washington reiterated that it recognizes North Korea as a sovereign state and has no intention to invade the country, an unidentified North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said.

"We will continue to closely watch the US attitude, and when the time is right, we will officially deliver our position to the United States through a New York contact," the spokesman said.

The May 13 meeting, the first face-to-face contact between the United States and North Korea in half a year, was initiated when a US State Department official came to the North Korean mission to the United Nations, he said.

His comments, in response to a question from the official KCNA news agency and carried by South Korea's Yonhap agency, come as Washington tries to persuade North Korea to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

"If the United States honestly wants to solve problems through the six-party talks, then it must move in the direction of creating the conditions and atmosphere for the talks to open," the spokesman said.

US officials had been making "extremely pressuring" remarks against the North, even as the two sides remained in contact, he added.

North Korea has boycotted six-nation talks since the third round in June in Beijing last year. Aside from the United States and North Korea, the talks include host China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

After declaring itself nuclear-armed in February, North Korea said this month it had unloaded 8,000 spent fuel rods from its reactor, a step that would allow it to reprocess weapons-grade plutonium for more nuclear bombs.

US officials have also said recently there were signs the North is preparing for a nuclear test.

Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, confirmed Thursday that "working level" talks were held on May 13 in New York, where North Korea has a delegation at the United Nations.

"This channel was used to reiterate the message, directly, that the North Koreans need to return to the six-party talks without conditions, so we can pursue a policy of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula," Duffy added.

Joseph DeTrani, deputy chief of Washington's delegation at the six-party talks, represented the United States at the meeting while his North Korean counterpart was Pak Gil-Yon, the North's ambassador to the United Nations.

North Korea might return to six-way talks if China agrees to offer it diplomatic and economic support, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

Pyongyang has told Beijing that, before it returns to nuclear talks, it wants an unspecified amount of Chinese economic assistance, the Sankei Shimbun said, citing a diplomatic source in Washington.

North Korea has also asked China to help push for one-on-one talks between North Korea and the United States, and to take Pyongyang's rather than Washington's side, the newspaper said.

If North Korea receives satisfactory answers from China, Pyongyang might announce within the coming week that it has decided to return to six-nation talks, the Sankei said.

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