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The United States is open to holding discussions on North Korea's recent proposal to hold military talks to help establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, a State Department official said Friday.

In a news briefing, deputy spokesman Tom Casey said if North Korea brings the matter up at the six-party talks slated for next week, there would be an ample opportunity to discuss details.

He said all the information he had on the proposal came from media sources and that there had been no direct delivery of any message from Pyongyang.

The official said that while separate talks outside the six-party framework were possible, he declined to confirm if Washington was officially accepting the proposal or rejecting it.

Earlier in the day, North Korea said it wanted to hold military talks with the United States under the auspices of the United Nations to explore the setting up of a peace regime that could replace the armistice that ended the Korean War (1950-53).

Because the armistice is a temporary halt to hostilities, South Korea and the United States are still technically at war with North Korea.

The statement was made by Lt. General Ri Chan-bok, chief of the Panmunjom Mission of the (North) Korean People's Army. He said Pyongyang wants direct talks with the United States at a meeting jointly arranged at "any place and at any time."

Casey said that the September 19 joint communique that outlines the end of Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for economic assistance, clearly called for introducing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

He said while talks were always possible, there is still a long way to go before meaningful measures could be taken towards a peace regime.

On the latest proposal made by the communist country, Christopher Hill, Washington's chief negotiator at the six-party talks, said any negotiations on setting up a peace regime should talk place alongside efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear capability.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia are participants in the talks that resulted in a February 13 agreement committing Pyongyang to giving up its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other benefits.
WASHINGTON, July 13 (Yonhap News)