The United States is ready to respect and treat the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as an equal partner once it rejoins the six-party nuclear talks, the US top nuclear negotiator said on Monday in Seoul.

Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state, made this remarks in an interview with South Korean state-run Yonhap News Agency earlier in the day.

Hill's remarks came three days after a meeting between the DPRK 's top leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on last Friday.

In the meeting, Kim was quoted as saying "The DPRK is willing to return to six-party nuclear talks even in July, if the US recognizes and respects" Pyongyang.

"When we begin these negotiations, we will conduct them in an attitude of mutual respect to all the parties and also with the sense of equality that a good negotiation should have," Hill was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

The US diplomat called Chung-Kim's meeting as "very important and very positive" for the nuclear talks. But, he also called the DPRK to make a specific date for its return to the dialogue table.

"The US is remaining very focused on the need for a date to begin the negotiation because if we don't have a date, we don't have a negotiation," Hill said. "We want to have a date and we hope that this will happen in July."

Hill also said he received "excellent briefings" from the South Korean government on the last Friday's meeting, but declined to elaborate, according to Yonhap.

"We are prepared to work on the basis of equality and on the basis of mutual respect to put together a package that will address many of North Korea (DPRK)'s needs," he said. "So the first step in all of this is to get a date."

Hill, former US ambassador to Seoul, arrived here on last Thursday and headed for Washington on Monday.

The recent nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula occurred in October 2002. In order to peacefully end the nuclear issue, China, the DPRK, the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan have convened three rounds of six-party nuclear talks in Beijing.

However, the fourth round of the multilateral talks failed to be convened as the DPRK refused to attend the talks, citing US hostile policy.

Source: Xinhua