U.S. Rejected N. Korea Peace Talks

The State Department on Sunday acknowledged a report revealing the U.S. secretly agreed to engage in peace talks with North Korea in an attempt to end to the Korean War just days before Pyongyang’s latest nuclear bomb test. According to the Wall Street Journal report, the Obama administration asked for Pyongyang’s nuclear program to be part of the talks. North Korea reportedly declined the counterproposal and the nuclear test followed on Jan. 6. “To be clear, it was the North Koreans who proposed discussing a peace treaty. We carefully considered their proposal, and made clear that denuclearization had to be part of any such discussion,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby, noting that Pyongyang rejected it.