"(The North Korean statement) appears to demonstrate the country's willingness to hold working-level talks (with the US over denuclearization) after the drills end," the presidential official said, without commenting on Cheong Wa Dae's stance over the message.

When asked by reporters whether Cheong Wa Dae felt uneasy about the North's belligerent message, the official said, "Statements issued by North Korea use different languages, compared with ours."

Meanwhile, the office of President Moon Jae-in dismissed a Japanese media report saying the US supported Tokyo's claim that South Korean court rulings over Japan's wartime forced labor violate the 1965 bilateral treaty that normalized the Seoul-Tokyo ties.

Japan's Mainichi reported Sunday that Tokyo had consulted with Washington to brace for possible requests by forced labor victims seeking asset seizure of Japanese firms in the US and Washington delivered its support to Japan's claim late last year.

"South Korea has checked (the veracity of the report) with the US side at the National Security Council level and received a reply that it was not true," Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung told a press briefing. (Yonhap)