SEOUL - NORTH Korea is ready to improve relations with the United States if incoming president Barack Obama takes a friendly approach towards the communist country, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said on Monday.

'If the United States changes, the DPRK (North Korea) will respond to it, and the establishment of new relations is fully possible,' the Chosun Sinbo newspaper, published by pro-Pyongyang residents of Japan, commented.

The North has so far not given an official reaction to Mr Obama's White House victory last week but experts here believe Pyongyang may extend an olive branch to the incoming Democratic administration.

Chosun Sinbo, which echoes the North's political stance, said that sanctions and pressure adopted by Mr Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, had pushed Pyongyang to develop nuclear weapons.

It said Mr Bush's 'hostile' policies had hampered progress in efforts to disarm the North and urged Mr Obama not to demand Pyongyang act first.

'The Obama administration should not waste time by following customary bad practices in diplomacy towards the DPRK if it wants to build a higher degree of mutual trust in a stable manner.'

'It is required to eradicate a bad habit and pursue an independent policy aggressively from the beginning,' it said.

Washington last month removed North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism saying Pyongyang had agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume the disabling of its atomic plants.

But nations involved in six-party talks have yet to endorse a protocol for the hardline communist country to fully verify its nuclear record.

Last week, Mr Ri Gun, head of the American affairs bureau of the North's foreign ministry, met US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill in New York to discuss steps to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament and deliveries of energy aid.

Mr Ri told reporters that Pyongyang was ready to handle any US government 'whatever its North Korea policy may be', according to the South's Yonhap news agency.

'We've handled many US administrations, some seeking dialogue with us and others trying to isolate and oppress us,' he was quoted by Yonhap as saying. -- AP