U.S. open to N. Korea talks 'anytime, anywhere'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration Wednesday reiterated its willingness to resume dialogue with communist North Korea "anytime, anywhere."

"We continue to await a response from North Korea to our long-standing proposal to meet with them on broader issues of concern," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Fleischer's comments followed a report in North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, quoting the Asian nation's foreign ministry spokesman as saying Pyongyang "carefully examined the U.S. side's position and decided to resume the negotiations."

The report also said North Korea might call off talks if the White House expresses any "groundless slander" -- an apparent reference to President Bush's inclusion of North Korea, along with Iraq and Iran, in an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union speech in January.

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Washington and Pyongyang have been at odds since Bush took office last year, and the war of words has escalated since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by suicide hijackers.

The White House has repeatedly accused North Korea of trying to develop weapons of mass destruction, claims that Pyongyang denies. North Korean officials also were angered by the revelation last month of a secret Pentagon review naming North Korea and six other nations as potential U.S. nuclear targets.

The Bush administration believes the North Korean statement in KCNA signals Pyongyang's desire to resume talks with an international group -- known as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development, or KEDO -- and not the United States specifically.

Created in October 1994 under a joint U.S.-North Korea agreement -- the same talks at which Pyongyang agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle its nuclear program -- KEDO oversees the building of two light-water nuclear reactors in the Asian nation.

The White House announced Tuesday that it would make $95 million available to KEDO. Officials said the contribution served the United States' national security interests, waiving the requirement that North Korea first comply with all provisions its agreement to halt its nuclear missile program.

Despite the political development, Fleischer said the president will not necessarily avoid accusatory language such as including North Korea in an "axis of evil."

"The president will continue to speak out forthrightly about what he sees as ways to make peace throughout the world," Fleischer said.

Fleischer's comments Wednesday mirrored those made by Bush in a visit to South Korea in February, when the president said he was willing to resume discussions with North Korea about the country's nuclear and missile programs.