WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The U.S. government was apparently unenthusiastic Tuesday about North Korea's latest overture, coupled with its typical threats.

"We're going to be guided not by what they say, but what they do," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing.

She was responding to remarks by her North Korean counterpart that the communist nation has no plans to conduct a nuclear test soon and it remains open for a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue.

Pyongyang informed the U.S. several weeks ago that it is "refraining" from provocative actions, according to the unnamed spokesman for Pyongyang's foreign ministry.

The spokesman reiterated that the North will be "left with no option but to take counter-measures for self-defense" if Washington continues to put sanctions and pressure on it.

Nuland said, "Frankly, I'm not sure what they mean by that.... I'm not sure what they actually had in mind."

She pointed out that the U.S. has lost confidence in North Korea's commitments to denuclearization.

"You know what we've been saying about the Leap Day Agreement, that we no longer have any confidence in any of the commitments that they've made since they've already abrogated the major ones," she said.

Under the Feb. 29 deal, the North pledged to suspend some of its nuclear activity and long-range missile tests. In return, the U.S. agreed to offer food aid.

Nuland neither confirmed nor denied a news report that a senior U.S. government official visited Pyongyang a week before the North's rocket launch in April.