Pyongyang, North Korea ? North Korea called for an end of hostile relations with the United States and renewed its commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula in a New Year’s message Friday.

Communist North Korea has long demanded that Washington end hostility toward the regime, and said it developed nuclear weapons to deter a U.S. attack. Washington has repeatedly said it has no intention of invading the country.

The latest commitment brightened the prospect that Pyongyang may rejoin the stalled international talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs in exchange for aid and other concessions.