"Rather than floating trial balloons, just come back to the table. Come back to the table, renounce in a verifiable way the nuclear program, then we not only can talk but there can be a lot of progress," White House spokesman Tony Snow said at a news briefing.

Referring to a report that the DPRK had expressed willingness to return to negotiations if Washington eased its pressures on Pyongyang, Snow said, "The North Koreans have not made offers to return to the six-party talks."

Noting "What they (the DPRK) want is an elimination of sanctions," Snow said that the six-party approach has been proved effective "because the use of sanctions have already occasioned some concern in Pyongyang."

The international community expressed concern over the DPRK's nuclear test on Oct. 9 and urged it to return to the six-party talks aimed at solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

The United Nations Security Council on Oct. 14 unanimously adopted a resolution imposing sanctions against the DPRK for its nuclear test.