SEOUL Communist North Korea now views the United States, a battlefield foe a half-century ago, as a vital means of guaranteeing its own survival, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said Feb. 2.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Kim said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wants to boost ties with Washington to bolster his isolated country? national security and help restore its dilapidated economy.

"As far as I could see, North Korea? greatest goal is to improve relations with the United States, " the 76-year-old president said.

"Toward that end, it has shown flexibility over its missile issue, it has kept to its nuclear freeze pledges," Kim told AP editors and executives at Chong Wa Dae, the presidential office. "There are problems still remaining between the two sides, but basically I believe that North Korea very much wants to improve things with the United States."

The two Koreas have taken huge steps toward rapprochement since their leaders met one another last year at an unprecedented summit. However, the pace of change has often been fitful and concerns linger about whether the North really wants better ties with the outside world or, desperate to survive, is just cadging for economic aid.

"We are promoting tension reduction on the one hand and exchanges and cooperation on the other hand with North Korea, in parallel," Kim said. "Both tracks, I believe, are still at the beginning stage. But the situation overall is not all that bad."

Kim, who met his North Korean counterpart in June in Pyongyang, said he was convinced Kim Jong-il would honor a pledge he made then to visit Seoul.