North Korea will return to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) upon the US provision of the Light Water Reactors (LWR), a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a statement.

"We made it clear that the basis of finding a solution to the nuclear issue between North Korea and the US is to wipe out the distrust historically created between the two countries and a physical groundwork for building bilateral confidence is none other than the US provision of LWRs to North Korea," the statement said.

"We strongly demanded that the US remove the very cause that compelled North Korea to withdraw from the NPT by providing LWRs to it," he added.

"As clarified in the joint statement, we will return to the NPT and sign the Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA and comply with it immediately upon the US provision of LWRs, a basis of confidence-building, to us," the spokesman said.

The second phase of the fourth-round six-party talks ended Monday with a joint statement.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2005)