North Korea has proposed unconditional high-level talks with the US to discuss denuclearisation and easing tensions, less than a week after it called off negotiations with South Korea over economic co-operation projects.

Planned dialogue between the two Koreas fell apart last week after Pyongyang abandoned plans for a two-day meeting due to disagreements over who leads delegations of the two sides. “In order to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and to achieve regional peace and safety, we propose to hold high-level talks between the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and the US,” said a spokesman for the National Defense Commission, which is headed by the country’s leader Kim Jong-eun.

“If the US truly wants to realise a ‘world without nuclear weapons’ and bring detente, it should positively respond to the DPRK’s bold decision and good intention, not missing the opportunity,” the statement said, carried by the country’s official KCNA news agency.