The United States Monday welcomed North Korea's rare conciliatory gestures to South Korea but said that the communist regime needed to do more by moving ahead with denuclearizatio, AFP reported.
"Clearly these are welcome steps, in and of themselves," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters, hoping that the gestures "might open the door for renewed dialogue" between North and South Korea, according to AFP.
North Korea said it would restart family reunions and a stalled tourism program for South Koreans _ while adding it was ready for a "merciless and prompt annihilating strike" if a U.S.-South Korean exercise infringes on its sovereignty.
"That said, these marginal steps in and of themselves are not enough. We continue to reiterate what North Korea has to do," he said. "We want to see them take definitive steps, irreversible steps, towards denuclearization."
North Korea in recent months has tested a nuclear bomb and a series of missiles and bolted out of a six-nation agreement under which it was to give up its nuclear weapons in return for aid and security guarantees.
The United States has said it is open to talks with North Korea but has also pushed to punish the regime over its recent actions.