The United States said on Monday that it hopes the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK) will make a "serious response" to the proposal it made at the last round of six-party talks aimed at solving the DPRK nuclear issue.

"Five countries put a proposal on the table a year ago. We want to see North Korea come back to the talks with a serious response to that proposal," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"We look forward to talking about how we can make progress toward our shared goal of a denuclearized peninsula. North Korea has expressed that they are committed to a denuclearized peninsula, and they want to make progress toward that goal. and it's important that we do make progress in this next round of talks that begin later this month," McClellan said.

The US proposal, offered in June 2004, has been denounced by the DPRK as unbalanced because the DPRK would have been required to disclose all of its nuclear programs and have its claims verified , before the United States took any steps in return.

The DPRK has agreed to return to the six-party talks in the week of July 25. The talks have been stalled since the last round of talks were held in Beijing in June last year.

Source: Xinhua