"There is a tremendous opportunity now for them to take a constructive measure," Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told reporters, asked if the North shows any sign of returning to the six-party talks it quit in April.

"They've certainly given some indications that they understand the value of re-engagement," Steinberg said, after talks with South Korean officials during a five-nation regional tour.

"We would like to see them take advantage of that."

Steinberg reiterated Washington's stance that it is willing to hold direct talks with Pyongyang but only to bring it back to the six-nation forum.

"It's important for North Korea to make clear that it's prepared to engage on those terms," he said.

The talks group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan. Pyongyang quit the forum in protest at United Nations censure of its long-range rocket launch on April 5.

It staged a second atomic weapons test in May, incurring stronger United Nations sanctions supported even by its closest ally China.

The North said late Wednesday it must keep its nuclear deterrent to safeguard regional peace and national interests, in the face of what it termed US nuclear threats.

"Giving up nuclear weapons cannot be considered even in a dream as long as the fundamental reasons which have forced us to possess nuclear weapons exist," a foreign ministry spokesman told the communist state's official news agency.

The North said it would strive for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in the context of Washington's nuclear policy towards it and the global effort to build a world free of atomic weapons.

But it rejected as a "dual standard document" a UN resolution passed last week, which vowed to stop the spread of atomic weapons and to rid the planet of all nuclear arms.

Steinberg, who has visited Vietnam, Malaysia and China and was going on to Japan, said six-party members had no differences on how to proceed.

He denied any divergence with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, who this month proposed a "grand bargain" with the North.

This would involve massive aid and security guarantees in return for denuclearisation, rather than the step-by-step measures of the past.

"What we all agree is that we've lived through the history before of partial measures and reversible measures," Steinberg said. "What we need is a comprehensive and definitive resolution of the nuclear question."

The KCNA commentary derided the "grand bargain" as "rubbish" and said Lee was trying to obstruct a solution between Washington and Pyongyang.

Lee said separately that Seoul should make its voice heard in nuclear negotiations.

"The North Korean nuclear issue, though it is an issue of concern for the US and China and the world, is indeed an inter-Korean issue," he told a press conference.

"However, our voice has not been heard enough and talks have only been centred on proposals presented by the US and China."

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