U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says North Korea may be backing off from insisting on one-to-one talks with the United States over its nuclear weapons program.

Powell made the remark Thursday in a meeting with reporters in Chile before attending a meeting of trade and foreign ministers ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

He said that Washington has lately seen a few signals coming out of the North stating that it has never insisted that its nuclear standoff had to be solved in a bilateral way.

If such conciliatory signs are confirmed by Pyongyang, it could lead to a prompt resumption of the stalled six-nation talks on settling the North's nuclear issue.

Powell is later scheduled to meet with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on Friday and seek ways to promptly resume the multilateral nuclear dialogue.