North Korea has agreed to come back to the six-party negotiations on ending its suspected nuclear weapons program, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday. The announcement came after officials from the two countries held a rare meeting in New York on Monday at the request of Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans said they would return to the six-party process, but did not give us a time certain when they would return. As the president and secretary have made clear, we want diplomacy to be given a chance to work to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue." Mr. McCormack added no conditions were discussed during Monday's contact.

The six-nation talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been at a standstill since North Korea walked out of the talks in June 2004. The White House was more cautious in assessing Monday's meeting.

"They expressed their commitment to the six-party talks, but we did not get any indication that they were yet ready to return to the talks, or they didn't give any date of when they were going to return to the talks."

In Washington, Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator for the multilateral nuclear talks, said there won't much progress in the North Korean nuclear impasse until the involved parties get a date and until everyone is sitting at the table.

In reaction, the South Korean government cautioned against too much optimism, saying the New York meeting is only a part of a negotiating process to resume the stalled nuclear talks. South Korean officials say Seoul is aware that during Monday's bilateral meeting between North Korea and the U.S., North Korean officials did not give any definite or detailed response to their counterparts in Washington.

The government in Seoul says it's hard to give either a negative or positive prospect on the dialogue resumption since there are many other issues to discuss and no new proposals to be made to North Korea.

Relatedly, China's ambassador to the United Nations said North Korea would return to the six nation talks within "weeks". Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters the talks, which North Korea has boycotted for the past year, would probably resume in Beijing. When asked if he was optimistic about the chances for a breakthrough in North Korea's nuclear standoff, Wang answered: "Hopeful, not optimistic."

Arirang TV