US Dropped North Korea Peace Talk Plan After Missile Test

The U.S. called of talks with North Korea aimed at formally ending the Korean War when it became clear that the reclusive nation wasn't interested in stopping its nuclear program by conducting a ballistic missile test.

The talks, which Pyongyang requested according to the U.S., ended after North Korea rebuffed a U.S. demand that denuclearization be a condition for the talks, Obama administration officials said.

"To be clear, it was the North Koreans who proposed discussing a peace treaty," State Department spokesman John Kirby said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. "We carefully considered their proposal, and made clear that denuclearization had to be part of any such discussion. The North rejected our response. Our response to North Korea's proposal was consistent with our longstanding focus on denuclearization.‎"

The U.S. has leaned on China to play peacemaker with North Korea, its neighbor, since the U.S. and North Korea don't have formal diplomatic relations. Obama has recently warmed relations with adversaries. The U.S. spurred negotiations in recent months with Iran, with whom it also doesn't have formal diplomatic ties, on the release of U.S. prisoners held by Tehran. And the president in 2015 reopened diplomatic relations with Cuba.

The U.S. and North Korea reached an agreement in 2005 with other nations including Japan and South Korea that set the groundwork for future talks premised on denuclearization.

Shining Star

North Korea successfully launched a "Kwangmyongsong," or shining star, satellite into orbit this month. Pyongyang continues to develop a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile that "would likely be capable of reaching much of the continental United States," the Pentagon said in a report to Congress on the secretive regime's military capabilities.

The North Korea talks were reported earlier by CNBC. Major hostilities in the Korean War ended in 1953, but the war never officially ended.