The White House has officially denied a news report that U.S. President Barack Obama proposed the establishment of a liaison office in North Korea in a letter sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

A spokesman for the National Security Council told KBS Saturday that the U.S. president never made such a proposal to the North.

Although he declined to reveal the details of the letter Obama reportedly had U.S. special envoy to the North Stephen Bosworth deliver to Kim, the spokesman stressed that the news report on the liaison office proposal was not true.

Quoting Chinese sources familiar with North Korean affairs, some South Korean news outlets reported Friday that the U.S. president proposed the establishment of a liaison office in Pyongyang, which they expected might open in the first half of next year.