Former U.S. nuclear negotiator Robert Gallucci said Monday that North Korea might not be interested in talks on its nuclear and missile programs until it secures an intercontinental ballistic missile capability that levels the playing field with the U.S.

   "Maybe it's true that the North has no interest at this moment in having the negotiations that involve its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles," Gallucci said in a lecture at Seoul's Yonsei University.

   "Some suspect in the U.S that they don't want to enter through negotiations with the U.S... until they have demonstrated an ICMB capability that makes the U.S. vulnerable to them... so that they have leveled the playing field," he added. "That's possible."

   Gallucci said that the North is not likely to give up its nuclear and missile programs easily at a time when it has already secured much of the necessary technology, but he still stressed the need for talks with the North.

Former US nuclear negotiator Robert Gallucci. Yonhap

   He also pointed out that the U.S. call for the North to show "some sort of sincerity" before starting any talks is serving as an "obstacle." He rather called for negotiations without any preconditions.

   "Fair to believe that the president of the Republic of Korea has reached out to the North. Fair to believe that the North is always not ready. Also fair to believe that the U.S. has put some conditions on starting talks," he said.

   "My own view here is that the negotiations ought to begin by a no preconditions rule so that the two sides can have senior negotiators... that can talk to one another," he added.

   Gallucci emphasized that the "endgame" in having talks with the North should be make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free and that mutual trust needs to be built through "incremental" negotiations.

   Gallucci, who served as chief nuclear negotiator with North Korea during the first nuclear crisis in the early 1990s, is best known for negotiating the 1994 nuclear deal that committed North Korea to freeze and ultimately dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid and other concessions.

   The so-called Agreed Framework, however, fell apart following revelations in late 2002 that Pyongyang secretly ran a uranium enrichment program in violation of the deal.