New Zealand's Foreign Minister held out the promise of deeper international engagement for North Korea if it follows through with nuclear disarmament steps, saying yesterday that aid and investment could follow.

North Korea has been isolated over its atomic ambitions, but, under a multilateral agreement, its steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes are to be matched with diplomatic normalisation and moves in the United States to remove the country from its terrorism blacklist.

I left the clear impression with the North Koreans that there is an enormous community out there that I believe would back their co-operation on this issue with significant investment and aid into the Korean people," New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters told reporters in Beijing.

"I don't think we can underscore how important that is for a country that's fallen behind economically and socially."

Peters made the comments following a trip to the North - the first for a New Zealand minister since the two countries established formal ties in 2001 - where he met number two leader Kim Yong-nam, and the foreign, trade and agriculture ministers.

He said they discussed opportunities for co-operation in training and agriculture for the North, which is so poor it cannot feed its people or afford electricity to run its factories, but that no agreements were finalised.

He also extended an invitation for North Korean officials to visit New Zealand.