The U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia says North Korea indicated during bilateral meetings with the U.S. last month a "potential disposition" about returning to the six-way nuclear talks.

Kurt Campbell said Friday that he found out about the indication when he met with special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth and special envoy to the six-way nuclear talks Sung Kim recently and talked about the trip the two made to Pyongyang last month.

Campbell said he believes the next appropriate step is a resumption of the six-party dialogue, which includes the U.S. and North Korea as well as South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.