The North’s proposal indicated that it was moving toward negotiations after months of bellicose language, including threats to launch nuclear strikes at the United States and South Korea.

In the past few weeks, North Korea has invited a special envoy from Japan and sent one to Beijing, where it told Chinese leaders that it was willing to return to the negotiating table. It had also proposed discussions with South Korea, though the initial agreement to hold talks in Seoul collapsed last week because of differences over the level of seniority of the delegations.

Washington, however, has been skeptical of such overtures, given North Korea’s history of alternating between provocations and engagement. The United States has insisted that the North first demonstrate a willingness to abandon its nuclear weapons program before Washington would sit down and talk.

A spokesman of the North’s National Defense Commission said on Sunday that the United States would not raise preconditions if it was sincere in its efforts to defuse tensions on the peninsula.