The head of a Washington-based think tank predicts if Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry wins the November U.S. presidential election, Washington would open direct dialogue with North Korea.

The head of the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), John J. Hamre, made the comments in an interview with Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Wednesday.

Hamre, a former U.S. deputy secretary of defense, said Kerry's election would herald a significant change in American policy on North Korea.

He described the presumptive Democratic nominee's North Korea policy as dialogue-oriented, saying his foreign relations advisers comprise many former Clinton administration staffers.

Hamre went on to say that Washington has no choice but to demand that Pyongyang suspend its plutonium production, but alleged the Bush administration was going about it in the wrong way by refusing to engage in dialogue with the North.