The United States is ready to hold another round of talks with North Korea and China over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions -- but upholds its position that these negotiations should later expand into five-way talks involving Japan and South Korea, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.
"I don't think that we had ever ruled it out," said John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, commenting on the prospect of more trilateral talks.
An initial round of negotiations was held in Beijing in April.
While Washington has since demanded that the next round of talks include Japan and South Korea, no multilateral talks have been held due to Pyongyang's reluctance to include more countries.