A senior North Korean diplomat says Pyongyang will have dialogue with the United States if the conditions are right
Choe Son Hui, North Korea's foreign ministry director general for US affairs, made the comment to reporters in Beijing on Saturday as she was travelling home from Norway, according to Yonhap newsagency.
"We'll have dialogue if the conditions are there," she said when asked if the North was preparing to hold talks with the Trump administration.
When asked if North Korea was also preparing to talk with the new government in South Korea, of liberal President Moon Jae-in, Choe said: "We'll see."
The comments by Choe, who is a veteran member of the North's team of nuclear negotiators, came amid stepped up international efforts to press North Korea and ease tension over its pursuit of nuclear arms.
US President Donald Trump warned in an interview in late April that a "major, major conflict" with the North was possible but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile programs.
Trump later said he would be "honoured" to meet the North's leader, Kim Jong Un, under the right conditions.
Choe was in Norway for so-called Track Two talks with former US government officials, according to Japanese media, the latest in a series of such meetings.
A source with knowledge of the latest meeting said at least one former US government official took part but the US administration was not involved.
South Korea's Moon, elected this week on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea, says he is willing to visit Pyongyang under the right circumstances and that dialogue must be used along with sanctions to resolve the problem over North Korea's weapons.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests in defiance of UN and US sanctions and is developing long-range missiles to deliver atomic weapons.
