WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The United States government is still waiting for assurance from North Korea that it is serious about denuclearization, an official said Tuesday.

“We are urging restraint, we are calling for the DPRK (North Korea) to take steps to reassure the international community that it is serious about working with us on the denuclearization agenda,” Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department, said at a press briefing.

She was responding to North Korea’s renewed threats of a nuclear war.

Addressing a U.N. General Assembly session in New York on Monday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon said Washington’s hostile policy on Pyongyang could lead to a nuclear war.

Nuland said she did not see Pak’s comments yet.

She reiterated her department’s basic position on North Korea.

“We are waiting to see what this new leader is going to choose to do, but we are also warning against any further provocation,” Nuland said.