(Bloomberg) -- - North Korea said there is ``no need'' for Japan to participate in the six-nation talks aimed at dismantling the communist nation's nuclear weapons program.

``It would be much better for Japan to refrain from participating,'' North Korea's official Korea Central News Agency said in a release today, citing an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman. North Korea ``was displeased with Japan's participation in the six-party talks, but has properly treated it, taking the relations with other participating countries into consideration.''

North Korea said this week it will return to six-nation talks on condition the U.S. agrees to discuss lifting financial sanctions. The communist state suspended talks with the U.S., Russia, China, South Korea and Japan almost a year ago.

Fewer ``attendants would be not bad for making the talks fruitful,'' the Korea Central News Agency report said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Nov. 1 that North Korea's decision to return to the six-party talks isn't enough to end or lighten sanctions against it.

North Korea on Oct. 9 tested a nuclear bomb underground in the country's mountainous northeastern region, prompting the United Nations Security Council to impose economic sanctions.

Japan imposed its own sanctions after the nuclear test, including a ban on all imports from North Korea and prohibiting the country's vessels from docking at Japanese ports.