WASHINGTON: North Korea has been urged by the United States to desist from future provocations and instead engage in dialogue.

The remarks were made by Jalina Porter, the State Department's principal deputy spokesperson, on Friday amid speculation that the North is planning its first nuclear test since September 2017, possibly next week, when it will commemorate the 110th birthday of late founding leader Kim Il-sung, as per reports.

"We continue to urge the DPRK to refrain from further destabilising activities, and... instead choose to engage in serious and persistent engagement," she added, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The spokesperson was replying to a question on whether the US' North Korea strategy has changed because Philip Goldberg, the nominee for the new US ambassador to South Korea, stated that the US must press for North Korea's CVID (complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization).

Since taking office in early 2021, the Joe Biden administration has been defining its goal as full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula instead of the phrase.

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