The White House has dismissed North Korea's call for talks on a treaty to formally end the Korean war before putting the issue of dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear program on the table.
"The North Koreans are well aware of what they need to do... to come back to six-party talks in dealing with this issue... that is give up the idea of a nuclear state on the peninsula," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
"If they're willing to live up to those obligations, then we will make progress in those talks."
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North Korea's foreign ministry statement marked the first time the reclusive communist state has publicly stated its position on the disarmament negotiations since US envoy Stephen Bosworth visited Pyongyang last month.
Bosworth was trying to persuade North Korea to return to the six-nation talks it abandoned in April, a month before staging a second nuclear test. No firm agreement was reached.
Monday's statement said "repeated frustrations and failures" in the talks -- which began in 2003 and group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- showed the need to build confidence among parties concerned.
"If confidence is to be built between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US, it is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations, to begin with," said the statement carried by official media.
But a senior US official accused Pyongyang of trying "to use a back door to get a bilateral or a negotiation start with the US.
"This is not gonna work. They've got to walk through the front door, restart the six-party process," the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"And when they do that, then, within the context of the six-party process, they can have a bilateral discussion with the US on any number of issues."
The North has long called for a treaty to officially end the 1950-53 conflict, which terminated only with an armistice, leaving the parties technically at war. A US-led United Nations force fought for the South and China backed the communist North.
Six-party agreements in 2005 and 2007 envisage talks on a peace treaty but only in return for full denuclearization. The North said the peace pact should come first.
It has also offered to resume negotiations if the sanctions against it are lifted.
A State Department official rejected that idea. "We've made clear, going back several months, we're not going to pay North Korea for coming back to the six-party process," said spokesman PJ Crowley.
