The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is willing to return to talks in any form if some conditions are met, a South Korean newspaper reported on Saturday, quoting a DPRK representative to the United Nations.

In a telephone interview with the JoongAng Daily, the DPRK's deputy representative to the United Nations Han Song Ryol called on the United States to promise peaceful coexistence and noninterference in his country's internal affairs as a precondition for returning to the negotiating table.

"If these conditions are met, we are willing to attend talks in any form, including the six-party talks," he told the JoongAng Daily, one of three most influential newspapers in South Korea.

Han added that it was the main point of the Feb. 10 statement by the DPRK's Foreign Ministry in which Pyongyang declared that it suspended participation in the six-party talks on the nuclear issue for an "indefinite period."

"We have no way back now," he said, noting the country has been compelled to arm itself with nuclear weapons.

"But if the US abandons its hostile policy, we can also drop the anti-American policy. And then why do we need nuclear weapons?" Han said.

The nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula erupted in October 2002, when a senior US official said Pyongyang had told him it had a secret uranium-enriching program to make weapons.

In early 2003, the DPRK announced withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and claimed that it had reactivated its nuclear facilities.

The DPRK, South Korea, China, the United States, Russia and Japan have held in Beijing three rounds of six-party nuclear talks aimed at peacefully resolving the nuclear issue.

However, citing US hostile policy, Pyongyang refused to attend the fourth round of the talks scheduled for September 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2005)