The United States is hailing the U.N. Security Council's new sanctions against North Korea and is expressing intent to continue to pressure Pyongyang until the North returns to six-party nuclear talks.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told a news briefing Thursday that Washington will maintain its current position towards Pyongyang to show it that provocative actions have consequences.

Kelly said, however, that the door to the six-way talks and denuclearization remains open to the North.

Regarding the recent statements made by the North's number-two leader Kim Yong Nam regarding the talks, the spokesman said the North knows that in order to resolve the situation, Pyongyang must give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in an irreversible and verifiable manner.

Kim declared Thursday that the nuclear talks have come to a permanent end because the U.S. and other nations refuse to respect its sovereign rights.