North Korea has said it would stop its nuclear tests if the United States signed a peace treaty with Pyongyang and stopped its joint annual military maneuvers with South Korea.

An unnamed spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry made the offer early on Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) was quoted by international media as saying.

“Still valid are all proposals for preserving peace and stability on the [Korean] Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, including the ones for ceasing our nuclear test and the conclusion of a peace treaty in return for US halt to joint military exercises,” the spokesman said.

In response to a question concerning Pyongyang’s call for a peace treaty, the US State Department said recently it remained open to dialogue. The onus, it said, was on North Korea to take “meaningful actions toward denuclearization.”

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace agreement.

North Korea is irked by the joint military maneuvers conducted by Seoul and Washington and views them as direct threats against its security. The United States has some 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Source: MENA