WASHINGTON - On a trip to East Asia, Secretary of State Colin Powell intends to work out a strategy with Japan, China and South Korea on how to convince North Korea it is not under threat of attack.

The aim is to revive negotiations to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Six-way talks including the United States and both South and North Korea were to have been resumed in September but North Korea refused to attend because it said the Bush administration has not abandoned its "hostile" policy toward the North.

"It's a nice little cover line that they use," Powell said on Fox News Radio's "Tony Snow Show" before leaving Friday for East Asia. He said he would be discussing with U.S. friends in the region a strategy for bringing North Korea to the table.

"We are essentially in a discussion, a debate, negotiation" as to what North Korea might get in exchange for halting weapons-grade uranium research, Powell said.

North Korea says it wants security guarantees and economic aid in exchange for dealing with other countries' fears about its nuclear activities. The United States wants an immediate halt to nuclear activities and renewed international inspections. South Korea and Japan have offered fuel oil to the impoverished country as an incentive.

During the Clinton administration, North Korea agreed to stop its plutonium-based nuclear program in exchange for 500,000 metric tons of oil annually from the United States and help for its energy programs from Japan and South Korea.

The aid was stopped after the Americans said North Korea had admitted to having a uranium-based nuclear program.

At the Pentagon on Friday, South Korea's defense chief endorsed the six-nation formula, which the United States insisted on, rather than direct U.S.-North Korean talks. Besides the United States, the two Koreas and Japan, China and Russia are participants in the suspended talks.