The Obama administration was receptive to North Korea's offer of high level talks in a bid to ease tensions over the Korean Peninsula but Washington reminded Pyongyang that "scrapping of its nuclear weapons" must be the central topic of the meeting.
"Those talks have to be real. They have to be based on them living up to their obligations, to include on proliferation, on nuclear weapons, on smuggling and other things," said Denis McDough, the chief of staff of the Obama administration on Sunday.
"So we'll judge them by their actions, not by the nice words that we heard," said Denis McDough, according to the BBC News.
Days after the two Koreas cancelled a scheduled-high-level-talk over delegation dispute; Pyongyang proposed the talks with Washington.
Under the aegis of National Defense Commission, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un proposed "senior-level" talks by issuing a statement through its state media hoping to ease the tensions.
The commission said that the two can discuss a wide-range of topics like easing military tensions, changing a truce treaty to a peace treaty and nuclear matters without setting any preconditions.
"(The United States should) not lose the opportunity that is laid out and should actively agree with our resolute step and good intention," said the Commission.
North Korea tossed the talks offer to Washington just ahead of a scheduled meeting of delegates from South Korea, Japan and U.S. to discuss North Korea.
The delegates handling the North Korea issue are scheduled to hold the meeting in Washington this week to assess Pyongyang's nuclear programs and discuss future steps.
Following a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang earlier this year, North Korea and U.S. backed South Korea exchanged almost a daily stream of threats, escalating the tensions over the Korean peninsula.
