The U.S. State Department is urging North Korea to return to the six-party nuclear talks following the North's New Year's message last week in which it vowed to establish a peace and improve relations with the U.S.

In a daily news briefing, department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. is hoping to see action from the North and not just words.

He took note of the visit to Pyongyang made last month by special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth, which was the first high-level bilateral contact between the two nations under the Obama administration. Kelly said Washington expects some follow-ups to those talks.

Kelly also expressed hope that North Korea will allow consular access to Robert Park, a Christian missionary from Tucson, Arizona, who was detained after crossing the Chinese border into North Korea on Christmas Day to call attention to human rights conditions in the communist state.

Kelly said there are a number of actions the U.S. is looking for from North Korea, first and foremost of which is information on Park. But he added that the issue is not a condition to resuming the six-way talks.