N Korea wants to up U.S. talks

Relations between the two Koreas have cooled since Kim Dae-jung's visit to Washington in March

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House officials have said Pyongyang wants to take its next round of talks with the United States to a higher level.

The first high-level talks between the Bush administration and North Korean envoys were held in New York Wednesday.

They came after a hiatus of three months when the new U.S. administration said it wanted to review its relationship with the isolationist state, which it regards as a "rogue" nation.

At the time, the United States wondered if the North could be trusted to uphold agreements and used that as part of its argument for a new missile defense system to defend itself against "rogue" states.

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The U.S. stall hindered talks between North and South Korea on ways to reduce tensions on the peninsula and move towards reconciliation.

About turn

But in an about face last week, President Bush said he was ready to open talks with North Korea on its nuclear and missile programs, conventional military forces and weapons proliferation.

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The resumption of talks between the Stalinist state and the United States is seen as a key step in boosting peace on the Korean peninsula.

North and South Korea are still technically at war under a 1953 armed truce, and the North has made it clear that U.S. talks are a key to reunification between the two Koreas.

For his part, South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung has welcomed the re-opening of talks between Washington and Pyonyang.

Kim says he believes there will be a marked improvement in relations between the two Koreas after a flurry of activities following the landmark summit last year.

Already Seoul's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that North Korean workers returned to a front-line construction site, erecting tents to resume work on reconnecting a cross-border railway, part of the summit agreement.

The North pulled out the workers in April, suspending the work.

Next round

In the next round of talks which could be held as soon as the end of June, the North Koreans would be represented at the vice-ministerial level, while the United States would send special envoy to North Korea Jack Pritchard, the official said.

Pritchard held two hours of meetings Wednesday with North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, Li Hyong Chol, to pave the pave the way for resuming missile talks between the two countries, which ended when the Clinton administration left office in January.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker described the talks as "business-like and useful as a beginning to the dialogue process."

Washington openly distrusts North Korea which continues to export missiles to Iraq, Syria and Pakistan

The senior administration official described the next round of talks as "feeling out sessions." He also said the United States didn't expect "rapid progress on substance."

But the Bush administration is hopeful these talks could pave the way for more serious missile talks between the two sides by the end of the summer.

Any new policy is likely to closely resemble the previous administration's decision to engage North Korea, but with a strong emphasis on verifying North Korean compliance with any controls on nuclear weapons and proliferation.

Secretary of State Colin Powell held out the possibility of a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sam on the sidelines of a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers in Vietnam next month, but said it is still a bit soon to speculate on it.

Successful talks with the North Koreans could have implications for Bush's push for a regional anti-ballistic missile defense system. North Korea is often cited as a nation that could threaten the United States with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials have said, however, that other nations also pose a potential threat, among them Iran and Iraq.