North Korea has called for a full peace treaty to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War in the 1950s.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang said an official treaty was needed to resolve the crisis with the United States over the country's nuclear programme.
Six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programmes start in Beijing next Tuesday.
In a statement, the spokesman said replacing the armistice by a peace treaty would lead to ending the US hostile policy towards North Korea and automatically result in the denuclearisation of the peninsula.
