North Korea urged the United States to demonstrate good faith in upcoming six-way talks in Beijing to end the 16-month-old nuclear crisis, according to Yonhap news agency.
"Calls are mounting that the Bush administration should hold the six-way talks, which open Wednesday, in good faith," Yonhap quoted North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper as saying.
The newspaper report carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said the world wanted meaningful talks, scheduled to open in Beijing on Wednesday, that would promote a peaceful end to the lingering standoff.
Pyongyang has frequently accused the United States of paying lip-service to diplomacy to hide its hostile intent to invade North Korea and overthrow the country's Stalinist leadership.
The agency invoked the names of Democrat Joseph Biden, number two on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and John Kerry, Democratic frontrunner to challenge George W. Bush in November presidential elections.
Both men have been critical of Bush's record on North Korea and have called for direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang to resolve the nuclear crisis.
In Seoul, US envoy James Kelly, South Korean Deputy Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck and Mitoji Yabunaka, Japan's top foreign ministry official for Asia, held talks before heading to Beijing to join the multilateral negotiations.