South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun urged North Korea on Tuesday to return to stalled talks on its nuclear weapons program and said Seoul was ready to provide assistance to the communist nation to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

"North Korea should return to the six-way talks without conditions," Roh said in speech marking the 61st anniversary of the peninsula's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Roh also pledged that Seoul "will spare no efforts and assistance to ensure that North Korea abandons its nuclear (weapons program)."