party talks will be resumed in the near future," he told state television. "But all parties concerned, including China, are conducting consultations with each other positively." China is reclusive North Korea's closest friend and U.S. officials, while grateful to Beijing for already having brought it to the negotiating table three times, have faulted the Chinese for failing to exert more influence. North Korea, described by U.S. President George W. Bush as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, said for the first time last week it had nuclear weapons, arguing it needed them to deter a hostile United States. It announced it was pulling out of the talks in what analysts said could be a tactic to win concessions at a time when attention is focused on Iran's nuclear programmes. North Korea said on Saturday there was also no justification for one-to-one talks with the United States -- something it had previously requested. "Because the United States insists on its hostile policy towards the DPRK (North Korea) and refused to co-exist with the DPRK ... the DPRK has no justification to take bilateral talks by one-to-one on the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula with the United States now," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying. --More 1807 Local Time 1507 GMT
