26 February 2018•Update: 26 February 2018
By Muhammed Bilal Kenasari
WASHINGTON
The White House said Sunday that North Korea's willingness to hold talks or any future dialogue with the U.S. depends on the country's denuclearization.
In a written statement issued on Sunday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "there is a brighter path available for North Korea if it chooses denuclearization."
Responding to Pyongyang's "ample intentions of holding talks with the United States", the statement said Washington will wait and see.
"We will see if Pyongyang's message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization," the statement read.
"In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea's nuclear and missile programs are a dead end," it added.
North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons program accelerated in 2016, and the country has been subjected to sanctions since its first nuclear test in 2006.
Washington has repeatedly made its position clear that the North's authoritarian regime must first abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions if it wants talks with the U.S. on ending sanctions.
