party talks "for an indefinite period" but said its policy of solving the nuclear issue through dialogue remained unchanged. In a sign that Pyongyang may be ready to bargain after raising the stakes, the North's envoy to the United Nations told a South Korean newspaper that a return to talks was possible if the United States pledged coexistence and non-interference. Deputy Ambassador Han Song-ryol told the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper that the North wanted a U.S. assurance that there would be substantive results from negotiations. "We need some kind of justification if we were to return to the talks," Han said in the article published on Saturday. "If the United States withdraws its hostile policy, we will drop our anti-U.S. policy and become allies, and why would we then need nuclear weapons?" Han said. U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill met senior leaders in Beijing on Thursday as did the South Korean envoy to the talks, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon. On his return to Seoul, Hill said North Korea had made a huge mistake in pursuing nuclear weapons because its economy had suffered and relations with leading powers had worsened. North Korea has been playing the nuclear card to win diplomatic and economic benefits since the standoff began in October 2002 after Washington said Pyongyang had admitted to a secret programme to enrich uranium, violating a 1994 accord. Pyongyang has since denied having such a programme beyond its known plutonium plant.
