US open to 'authentic' negotiations with DPRK

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is open to "authentic and credible" negotiations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the White House said on Thursday.

Spokesman Josh Earnest reiterated Washington's commitment to the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, in response to DPRK's latest offer of talks with a set of preconditions.

"The United States has been and remains open to authentic and credible negotiations that would implement the September 2005 statement of the six-party talks," he told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Boston.

"It's going to require clear signals from the North Korean regime, clear signals we haven't seen so far, to live up to their international obligations and to keep their commitments to end their nuclear weapons program," he said.

"I think that the belligerent actions and words that we've seen emanating from the North Korean regime actually indicate the opposite of that," he added.

The DPRK's powerful defense commission on Thursday urged Washington and Seoul to stop provocations as part of conditions for restoring talks amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The commission demanded that the two allies fully apologize for their "aggressions" and give assurances not to carry out nuclear war games designed to intimidate the DPRK.

In addition, the commission urged them to withdraw nuclear weapons stationed in and around the Republic of Korea (ROK), and refrain from their redeployment.

The statement followed weeks of heightened tensions on the peninsula after the UN Security Council imposed fresh sanctions against Pyongyang last month after it conducted a third nuclear test in February.

The United States and South Korea have since carried out intensive war games in and around South Korea, including sending B- 52 strategic heavy bombers and B-2 stealth bombers to South Korea, apparently in a show of force.

These moves have led the DPRK to make repeated threats of war, which spooked many in and outside the region.