U.S. President Barack Obama has been kept abreast of the situation on the Korean Peninsula even as he's on vacation, a White House official said Saturday.

"The president has been kept up-to-date on developments on the Korean Peninsula," a White House official said, according to a pool report. "As the State Department has said, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our alliance with South Korea, with whom we will continue to coordinate closely."

Obama, who has been on vacation since early this month, is scheduled to get back to work Monday.

Top officials of South and North Korea have been holding high-level talks at the border village of Panmunjom to defuse tensions that have risen dramatically after an exchange of artillery fire across their border earlier this week. (Yonhap)