Pyongyang has called for an end to hostile relations with Washington in a New Year message that comes weeks after it indicated an end to its yearlong boycott of wider nuclear disarmament talks.

Experts said the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) this time may call for separate discussions on formally establishing diplomatic ties with the United States before it agrees to resume the Six-Party nuclear talks.

"The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the US," the official Central News Agency in Pyongyang reported in a joint newspaper editorial on the country's foreign policy. The DPRK traditionally marks New Year's Day with such a joint editorial by the country's three major newspapers representing its communist party, military and youth militia force.

"It is the consistent stance of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations," read the editorial.

Pyongyang has often said it wants to replace a ceasefire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War with a peace treaty and forge diplomatic relations with the US as a way to win security guarantees - demands Washington says should be linked to the DPRK's verifiable denuclearization.

In response, Pyongyang indicated it could return to the dormant, six-way nuclear discussions with China, Japan, Russia, Republic of Korea (ROK) and the US.

A year ago, the DPRK stepped away from a deal in those talks to halt its nuclear program in exchange for massive aid and an end to its international ostracism, in anger over international criticism of its long-range rocket launch. It then conducted a nuclear test and test-fired a series of ballistic missiles. The moves were hit with fresh United Nations sanctions.

Pyongyang has long demanded Washington ends its hostility towards the DPRK and said the country only developed nuclear weapons to deter a US attack, even though Washington says it has no intention of invading.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the private Sejong Institute security think tank in the ROK, said the DPRK is likely to maintain its conciliatory approach toward the US.

"Pyongyang extended an olive branch to the US," he said, adding he expects the two sides will agree to set up a liaison office as a symbolic move to end hostilities.

Kim Yong-hyun, a DPRK expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, also said prospects are not bad for relations between Pyongyang and Washington, noting the absence of the usual diatribes against the US in the New Year message.

Qi Huaigao, a scholar of international relations with Fudan University in Shanghai, wrote in an article published yesterday that, based on recent positive signals, the Six-Party Talks are highly likely to resume in 2010.

If the nations involved can take the opportunities, people will see a long-expected surprise change in the situation in the peninsula this year, he said.

China Daily-Agencies?