The United States urged on Thursday the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to return to the six-party talks without preconditions.

"It's time for North Korea to come back to the talks. There were very clear principles that everybody agreed to at previous rounds of the talks, and we want to move forward in a substantive way based on those principles," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at a briefing.

"We said we'll come back with no preconditions, and North Korea needs to come back with no preconditions so that we can move forward to resolve this issue," McClellan said.

The DPRK has said it will not return to the talks if the United States does not lift the sanctions imposed on the country last year.

Source: Xinhua