North Korea did not indicate to the United States during a meeting yesterday that it was ready to return to talks on its nuclear weapons, the White House has said.
"North Korea presented their views on various issues but they did not indicate in the meeting that they were ready to return to six-party talks," spokesman Scott McClellan. "We're hopeful that they will return to the talks," he added.
US and North Korean officials met in New York for the first time in nearly a month after Washington urged Pyongyang to return to the stalled talks.
No six-party talks have been held since June 2004.
The six governments participating in those negotiations are China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, North Korea and the United States.
The Bush administration has been debating internally whether to take the case of North Korea to the United Nations for possible sanctions.
The United States and North Korea have in the past used what they call the "New York channel" to get in touch with each other as they do not have formal diplomatic relations.