A Japanese daily says North Korea has demanded a series of high-level bilateral talks with the U.S. as a precondition for Pyongyang's return to the six-party nuclear talks.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Sunday cited multiple sources close to U.S.-North Korean relations as saying Pyongyang proposed to hold four to five rounds of dialogue in a recent bilateral contact in New York.

The daily says the North wants to discuss changing the 1953 armistice signed at the end of the Korean War into a peace treaty.

The report adds Washington will agree to the talks if Pyongyang returns to the six-party dialogue and promises to give up its nuclear program.