Beijing ? North Korea said Friday that the crisis surrounding its nuclear program could be “easily solved” through negotiations with the United States, repeating its demand for a nonaggression treaty but using slightly softer language in the rare forum of a news conference.

The government, which frequently communicates with the outside world through communiques laced with invectives, changed tactics and called reporters to its embassy in the Chinese capital, where the North Korean ambassador read a lengthy statement, took questions and pleaded that his message be relayed to the international community.

“If the U.S. assures us of security by completing a nonaggression treaty, the nuclear treaty on the Korean peninsula can be easily settled,” Ambassador Choe Jin Su said. “If other countries are concerned, they should urge the U.S.”

Choe blamed the United States for the crisis, saying North Korea was operating out of fear of attack by the United States. He discounted recent assertions by President Bush that the crisis could be solved through diplomacy and did not require military action.

“All the time they mention they have no intention of attacking, but who can believe these words?” he said. “If the U.S. has no intention of invading and wants a peaceful solution, they should respond (to our proposal) with dialogue, to sit down together and conclude a nonaggression treaty.”

The Bush administration on Friday again rejected calls for negotiations. At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher noted North Korea’s agreement to suspend its nuclear program in 1994 and said “we are not willing to bargain or negotiate over commitments that have been made before.”

On Friday, however, a spokesman for South Korean President-elect Roh Moon Hyun said Roh would offer a plan this month that would require both the United States and North Korea to accept concessions to resolve the standoff surrounding the North’s nuclear program.

While the North Korean ambassador insisted he was offering a reasonable approach, there was no change in demands to bypass South Korea and other allies and deal directly with the United States. North Korea’s longstanding strategy has been to freeze out South Korea and conclude a peace treaty with the United States, a tactic the United States has always rejected.

The United States has been consulting frequently with South Korea, Japan, China and Russia and will convene meetings Monday and Tuesday in Washington with South Korean and Japanese officials. Later in the week, State Department envoy James Kelly is expected to travel to Asia for further discussions.

A proposal to resolve a standoff surrounding North Korea's nuclear program is said to be in the making by South Korean President-elect Roh Moon Hyun, despite the strain in relations between the two Koreas. A North Korean soldier is shown looking to the south through a pair of binoculars Friday at the checkpoint at the border village of Panmunjom, north of Seoul. Roh's compromise would require North Korea and the United States to accept concessions.

It was not clear whether Choe’s news conference was designed to respond to President Bush’s recent comment or to influence next week’s meetings.

Nor could it be gauged whether it signaled a true softening of intent from the North Korean side, which repeated its insistence that the United States was entirely responsible for the standoff in which North Korea secretly resumed enriching uranium and then officially unfroze its nuclear program by restarting two nuclear plants. Earlier this week, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Since the last nuclear crisis with North Korea in 1994, Pyongyang had promised to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for an agreement to receive two peacetime nuclear reactors from the international community. That agreement has broken down under the weight of mistrust over North Korea’s frequent belligerence.

Relations with the outside world generally improved in the last two years as North Korea’s economy has deteriorated and it has reached out for aid, but at the same time mistrust by the Bush administration has grown. Last year, the president labeled North Korea part of the “axis of evil” with Iran and Iraq, and in October the United States confronted North Korea with evidence that it was covertly enriching uranium. North Korea confirmed the accusation.