North Korea Says Conditions for U.S. Talks Not Yet Ripe
Such talks would be the first substantive diplomatic contact since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in January 2001.
The Korean central news agency report came as the U.S. special envoy on Korean affairs, Jack Pritchard, wrapped up a South Korean trip on Friday seen as a preparatory step toward talks with the North.
"It is necessary to resume the DPRK-U.S. talks and they will be resumed any time when conditions are created," a foreign ministry spokesman told the KCNA in a report carried on Thursday night.
"The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) is of the view that such an environment has not yet been created."
Former U.S. ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg said in a speech in Seoul on Thursday that he expected pritchard to meet North Korean officials "shortly".
Gregg visited Pyongyang earlier this week.
Analysts said the North's word of caution sounded more like an attempt to set the pace than a radical step backward. It also appeared to be a response to the suggestion that Pritchard would soon visit Pyongyang and meet North Korean diplomats in New York.
The North Korean spokesman said "factors" stood in the way of resuming dialogue, largely frozen since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, but did not elaborate.
North Korean state media had demanded an apology for Bush's remarks throughout March, saying that it would not talk if Washington refused to recognize its political system.
As recently as last weekend, KCNA called the United States Korea's "most wicked sworn enemy", but anti-U.S. rhetoric has since abated on the state-run agency.
And an official of South Korea's ruling party with experience dealing with North Korea said Pyongyang was always very conscious of saving Leader Kim Jong-Il's face and the appearance of being in control of events.
"They never allow it to appear as though Kim was pressured into taking a decision," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry told an academic conference on South Korea's Cheju island on Friday it was too early "to pocket the results" of resumed dialogue despite encouraging signs.