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By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

Dialogue is imminent for the Korean Peninsula, a former White House National Security Council (NSC) coordinator on weapons of mass destruction said on Apr. 22.

Speaking with reporters after a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) seminar that day, Gary Samore said Washington and Beijing were discussing the prerequisites for reopening nuclear and missile talks with North Korea.

Commenting that China wants “as few conditions as possible” for resuming dialogue, while the US wants “meaningful conditions,” Samore said he was certain that US State Department special representative for North Korea policy Glyn Davies and Chinese Foreign Ministry special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs Wu Dawei were discussing the conditions.

Samore has experience with the North Korean nuclear issue, having handled weapons controls and WMD proliferation prevention for four years at the NSC during President Barack Obama’s first term (2009 to 2013). Early this year, he was appointed Executive Director of research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

Regarding the recent situation, Samore said he believed North Korea had "finished its provocation cycle and is looking for a negotiation cycle." He also said he thought Pyongyang had "begun hinting" that it wants to resume nuclear and missile talks.

Samore’s prediction was that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would start sending the message that he is ready to resume talks once the ongoing Foal Eagle military exercises between South Korea and the US conclude at the end of this month. He also said he thought China would apply "very powerful pressure behind the scenes" to stop Pyongyang from behaving aggressively.

According to Samore, the biggest question facing the alliance of South Korea, the US, and Japan is what basic conditions should be set for bilateral dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington, and an ultimate resumption of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue.

"Given North Korea’s sad history, we’re going to need more than words," he said. "We want to see things like a halt to nuclear tests and rocket tests."

"Personally, I have to question the credibility of North Korea’s claims that it will consider denuclearization if the US stops adopting hostile policies," he added.

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