In early October, North Korea said it could return to the stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons drive, on condition that it first has one-on-one talks with Washington and the talks make progress.

The Obama administration has said it could have direct talks with the North but ruled out substantial negotiations on the nuclear issue, stressing that face-to-face contacts would be used as a tool to persuade Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks.

In its response to Washington's unresponsiveness, North Korea's foreign ministry said Monday that it is time for the United States to make a decision on dialogue, as Pyongyang has already expressed its position on the preconditions for the resumption of the six-party talks.

"As the DPRK (North Korea) was magnanimous enough to clarify the stand that it is possible to hold multilateral talks including the six-party talks depending on the talks with the United States, now is the U.S. turn," the ministry told Pyongyang's official news agency.

The statement came after behind-the-scenes contacts between the North and the United States failed to produce tangible progress.

Ri Gun, North Korea's deputy nuclear envoy, traveled to New York and San Diego last week for academic forums during which he met Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy on the North's nuclear disarmament. The meeting raised media speculation that the two sides were fine-tuning conditions for a visit to Pyongyang by Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, for direct talks.

But the North's foreign ministry said Ri's encounter with the U.S. nuclear envoy was "not a preliminary one for the DPRK-U.S. talks."

"No discussion has been made there on any substantial issue concerning the bilateral dialogue," it said, hinting that Pyongyang failed to gain what it wanted through the contacts. Neither North Korea nor the United States released details of the meeting.

The ministry also warned the North would "go our own way" if the United States isn't ready to sit at the negotiating table with Pyongyang, suggesting it would take further steps toward nuclear armament and long-range missile tests.

Seoul's Yonhap News Agency reported that the North has apparently restored the facility it used to produce weapons-grade plutonium at its main nuclear complex, which had been mothballed under a six-nation accord.

"The reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier condition," a senior defense official was quoted as saying, citing satellite photos that showed a continuous stream of workers in and out of the site at the North's main nuclear complex in Yongbyon.

North Korea has long called for direct talks with the United States to discuss the nuclear crisis, claiming the current standoff was caused by Washington's "hostile" policy against Pyongyang.

South Korean officials say the North wants to use one-on-one negotiations with Washington to call for a non-aggression or peace treaty between them, which could lead to a withdrawal of 28,500 U.S. troops from South Korea.

The North has also demanded that the United States scrap its nuclear umbrella over South Korea, calling it a strategy to invade the North with atomic bombs and evidence that Washington is "hostile" toward it.

Kim Tae-hyo, presidential secretary for national security strategy, dismissed the North's demands, saying the Seoul-Washington alliance should not be dealt with in nuclear negotiations.

"The alliance between South Korea and the United States, which was created long before the North's nuclear development, is not connected with the nuclear issue," Kim told a Seoul forum on Monday. "The alliance could not play any role in the denuclearization process."

Kim said South Korea aims to denuclearize North Korea no later than 2012, with its proposal of a "grand bargain" aimed at breaking Pyongyang's cyclical pattern of brinkmanship and ending the nuclear standoff.

The grand bargain calls for the North to take "irreversible" steps to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for a security guarantee and economic aid. The grand bargain initiatives feature a "one-shot" deal to trade what the North most wants for what it is most reluctant to give up, Kim said.

"The international community has spent 16 years in dealing with North Korea's nuclear issue but has failed to approach the core issue. We must set a target time frame," the presidential secretary said.

Seoul's point man on North Korea, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, told a separate forum that Pyongyang shouldn't lose this "crucial opportunity" and should accept the proposed grand bargain.

earlier related report
NKorea presses US for talks on nuclear standoff
Seoul (AFP) Nov 2 - North Korea Monday pressed the United States to hold direct talks on ending their nuclear standoff and vowed to "go its own way" if Washington refuses to do so.

Repeating an earlier offer, the foreign ministry in the hardline communist state said successful bilateral talks could lead to a resumption of stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The North did not elaborate on the threat to "go its own way". But after quitting the six-party forum in April, it vowed to restart plants at Yongbyon which can produce weapons-grade plutonium.

In May it staged a second atomic weapons test, the second since 2006.

"North Korea is now telling the US that it will further bolster its nuclear deterrent unless Washington comes out early for bilateral talks," Professor Koh Yu-Hwan, of South Korea's Dongguk University, told AFP.

Seoul officials quoted by Yonhap news agency said the North has apparently reopened the plant which reprocesses plutonium from spent fuel rods at its main nuclear complex.

"The reprocessing factory appears to have been restored to its earlier condition," the agency quoted a senior defence official as saying on condition of anonymity, citing satellite photos.

Pyongyang's comments came as its deputy nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun, wrapped up a US visit during which he held rare talks with Sung Kim, special US envoy to the six-party forum.

After months of bellicose moves including a series of missile tests, the North has lately been making peace overtures and has invited the US special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, to visit Pyongyang.

In early October leader Kim Jong-Il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao his country was ready to return to six-party negotiations, but only after it has talked directly to the United States to improve "hostile relations".

"As the DPRK (North Korea) was magnanimous enough to clarify the stand that it is possible to hold multilateral talks including the six-party talks depending on the talks with the US, now is the US turn," a foreign ministry spokesman told Pyongyang's official news agency.

"If the US is not ready to sit at a negotiating table with the DPRK, it will go its own way."

The North has long sought direct high-level talks with the United States, and is unenthusiastic about the multilateral framework which also involves South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

Washington says it is open to bilateral talks but these would be limited to bringing Pyongyang back to the six-party framework. It says it has made no decision on any visit by Bosworth.

The North's spokesman played down Ri Gun's meeting in New York, saying it was not a preliminary to bilateral talks. He reiterated the country's stance that it was forced to develop a nuclear deterrent to counter US hostility.

"If the hostile relations between the DPRK and the US are settled and confidence is built between them, there will be meaningful progress in realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula."

The North complained it had suffered a "huge economic loss" from nuclear disarmament deals, firstly with the United States in 1994 and then in 2005 and 2007 with all other members of the six-party talks.

It said it never received the two light-water reactors promised in 1994 in return for shutting down Yongbyon.

That deal collapsed in 2002 when the United States accused the North of operating a secret bomb-making programme based on enriched uranium, and the light-water reactors were never completed.

The North's spokesman also complained that his country had received little economic reward in return for the latest shutdown of Yongbyon in 2007 under a six-party deal.

The North received 745,000 tons of heavy oil worth around 310 million dollars before the deal stalled, according to a South Korean report in October.

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