The US has welcomed Pyongyang's willingness to return to six-party talks and resume stalled multilateral negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program, PressTV reported
"There have been several communications or meetings with North Korean officials on or within the six-party framework and they have not reengaged up to this point. If a reengagement is what they desire, we're ready for that to take place and that can start as soon as they take the action to do so," State Department's acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters in Washington on Friday.
He added, "I think that a positive sign would be coming back to the six-party talks and not making statements about the six-party talks."
Duguid's remarks came as the North Korean Ambassador to London Ja Song Nam said earlier in the week that Pyongyang will return to the six-party talks before June without any preconditions set.
The six-party talks, which involve the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, China, Japan and Russia have been frozen since April last year.
Pyongyang has set two conditions for it to return to the talks, which are lifting UN sanctions against it and holding peace talks aimed at formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say, however, that Pyongyang must first return to the talks and show notable progress before its conditions can be met.