U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday once again forced North Korea to restart talks on ending its nuclear program.

North Korea which declared possessing at least one nuclear weapon announced in February its reluctance to take part in nuclear talks involving the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Rice said: "This is not an issue between the United States and North Korea. This is an issue of the neighborhood and what kind of Korean Peninsula we are going to have".

Mr. Ban,on his part, appeared optimistic that progress could be made. He said remarks made by Ms. Rice in Tokyo a day earlier, in which she called North Korea a "sovereign state," were a positive step for the talks to resume. That was a hint on the statement in which Ms. Rice called Pyeongyang an "outpost of tyranny".

Rice didn’t give details of the way in which the U.S. could treat the North. It could include economic sanctions, but no invading or attacking, she emphasized.

In order to stimulate the negotiation process, Rice had asked Chinese leaders for help in bringing North Korea back to the talks. But paying a visit to China in the framework of her six-country tour, Rice also couldn’t avoid Chinese issues: Taiwan and religious intolerance.