**The US says it would hold direct talks with North Korea to persuade it to return to stalled multilateral talks on ending its nuclear programme.**A spokesman for the US state department said that there had been no decision on when such talks might take place.
Philip Crowley insisted the move was not a policy shift and talks would take place within “the six-party process”.
North Korea pulled out of multilateral talks in April after international criticism following a rocket launch.
“It’s a bi-lateral discussion that (is) hopefully…within the six-party context, and it’s designed to convince North Korea to come back to the six-party process and to take affirmative steps towards de-nuclearisation,” Mr Crowley said from Washington.
He denied it was a policy shift but called it a “short-term” measure to try and bring the reclusive state back to talks.
Earlier this week, the US special envoy on North Korea met in Asia with officials from Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo to discuss the talks.
In September 2005, North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid in a deal decided between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US, beginning a process known as the six-party talks.
But since then, the talks have stalled over the failure of Pyongyang to verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear plant and over the North’s testing of a nuclear device in May this year.
The North says that it remains under military threat from its historic rival, South Korea, and South Korea’s allies, primarily the US.