A U.S. expert on Korean affairs says North Korea may be seeking to establish a peace treaty during multiple rounds of talks with Washington and is unlikely to agree to return to the six-way nuclear talks anytime soon.

Jack Pritchard, the president of the Korea Economic Institute, made the statement to reporters on Tuesday, as he discussed the results of the trip he made to Pyongyang late last month and the current visit to the communist state by U.S. presidential envoy to the North Stephen Bosworth.

Pritchard said he doesn’t see the North agreeing to come back to the six-party talks after the current round of meetings with Bosworth.

Pritchard said that he believes the North would seek to maintain bilateral-only discussions with the United States to try to force discussions of a peace treaty over an extended period.

Pritchard said that during his four-day stay in the North, North Korean officials, including director general of the North American affairs bureau of the foreign ministry Ri Gun, had stressed the need to replace the armistice that ended the Korean War with a peace treaty.