U.S., South Korea respond coolly to North’s talks offer

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. and South Korea have responded coolly to North Korea's offer of high-level talks with Washington, BBC News reported.

North Korea will be judged "by its actions and not its words", a U.S. spokeswoman said.

The North proposed talks on "regional peace" with the U.S. on Sunday, June 16, but said there should be no "preconditions".

Last week, planned talks between Pyongyang and Seoul fell through following disagreement over which delegates should attend. Regional tensions were raised earlier this year after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test and threatened to attack South Korean and U.S. targets in the region.

In recent weeks rhetoric from Pyongyang has softened, but U.S. officials appeared skeptical of its offer.

"Our desire is to have credible negotiations with the North Koreans, but those talks must involve North Korea living up to its obligations to the world, including compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, and ultimately result in denuclearization," U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

North Korea had to live up to its obligations on nuclear proliferation, Denis McDonough, chief of staff to the U.S. president, told U.S. broadcaster CBS news.

"We'll judge them by their actions, not by the nice words that we heard yesterday," McDonough said. "They're not going to be able to talk their way out of very significant sanctions they're under now."