SEOUL – The South Korean government has not held any unofficial talks with North Korea during the ongoing crisis, an unnamed official told Yonhap news in Seoul, yet has made repeated but vague calls for open dialogue with Pyongyang.

“The ministry is not aware of any under-the-table contact. Now is not the right time for such a move,” the anonymous official said. Sources in the South Korean media are often quoted anonymously.

Park’s administration hinted at the prospect of dialogue with Pyongyang last week, although once again stressed that doing so would be on the condition that the North’s nuclear program remained at the centre of any potential inter-Korean talks.

Observes argue North Korea is unlikely to abandon its nuclear programs since Pyongyang announced that nuclearization and economic development would become state priorities during a meeting of its rubber-stamp parliament late last month. North Korean media has also made past references to events in Libya and Iraq, and argues nuclearization is therefore justifiable.

In a statement broadcast on North Korean state radio last Friday morning, the government said it would be creating a new department named the “Ministry of Atomic Energy and Industry,” further demonstrating the extent to which North Korea’s nuclear program is to be embedded in official state identity.

Park Geun-hye is due to meet U.S. President Barak Obama for talks in Washington on the 7th of next month. The two parties will discuss “economic and security issues, including continued cooperation on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and countering the North Korean threat,” a statement from the presidential office said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing this weekend and, along with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, stressed that both sides “agree” to the the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Inter-Korean relations are at a low point following weeks of increasingly tense rhetoric between Seoul and Pyongyang. Relations began to rapidly decline after UN condemnation of North Korea’s third nuclear test in February; renewed U.S.-led sanctions shortly afterwards; and on-going U.S.-South Korean military exercises that Pyongyang argues are a dress rehearsal for a full-scale invasion of North Korea.

The South Korean government has not held any unofficial talks with North Korea during the ongoing crisis, an unnamed official told Yonhap news in Seoul, yet has made repeated but vague calls for open dialogue with Pyongyang.