The United States encourages dialogue between South and North Korea, even though it has imposed new sanctions on the communist nation, the State Department said Wednesday.

"We've certainly encouraged dialogue between North and South Korea," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a regular press briefing. "Our sanctions are put in place as a result of a range of factors, including their human rights record, including their nuclear aspirations."

Last week, the U.S. announced retaliatory sanctions on the North in response to its alleged hacking attack on Sony Pictures, blacklisting three North Korean entities and 10 individuals, including the Reconnaissance General Bureau, Pyongyang's top spy agency.

The sanctions came amid signs of the two Koreas seeking to resume dialogue to break the deadlock in their long-strained ties, with the South offering to hold high-level talks and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressing his willingness to hold a summit with the South.

The imposition of sanctions spurred speculation that it could be a sign of Washington's displeasure with the conciliatory mood between the two Koreas at a time when the U.S. was studying how to punish Pyongyang for the hack on Sony.

Psaki said she has no message to the North's leader, whose birthday reportedly falls on Thursday. But generally speaking, she said the North should honor its commitments to give up its nuclear program and improve its human rights record.

"We've long said on the nuclear issue that the ball is in North Korea's court. They need to abide by their international obligations, including the September 2005 joint statement. We haven't seen any indication they have plans to do that," Psaki said.

"On human rights, they have one of the most abysmal records in the world. It's resulting in the suffering of the North Korean people, and certainly we would encourage any leader to take a look at that," she said. (Yonhap)