North Korea says it is ready to resume dialogue with the United States. 

The official Korean Central News Agency says the two sides had contacts in New York last month, and that the Bush administration proposed restarting talks that were broken off last year. Pyongyang says it decided now is the time to begin that new dialogue. 

But the North Korean news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman who warned that any future talks would be put in jeopardy if the Bush administration makes what he called "groundless slanders" against the North. 

This announcement comes on the first day of a trip to North Korea by a South Korean presidential envoy. 

Lim Dong-won opened talks with officials in Pyongyang in a bid to revive stalled inter-Korean dialogue and persuade North Korea to hold talks with the United States. Mr. Lim met Wednesday with senior officials. Details were not released. 

Mr. Lim earlier expressed hope his trip would lead to a breakthrough in North-South relations. His talks are expected to cover reuniting families divided since the Korean War, restoring road and rail links and reviving tourism. 

Ties between North and South Korea improved drastically after a landmark summit in June 2000. But reconciliation efforts have since stalled, due in part to growing tensions between North Korea and the United States, which is South Korea's main ally. 

Earlier this year, President Bush called North Korea part of an "axis of evil" that includes Iraq and Iran. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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