The United States says it has no direct talks with North Korea planned at the present time.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley made the comment to reporters on Tuesday after being asked whether the U.S. is willing to hold one-on-one talks with the North prior to a resumption of the six-way nuclear talks.

Crowley said, however, that Washington is not ruling out bilateral or multilateral meetings with the North. He noted that the U.S. has had direct talks with Pyongyang in the past when it felt that they were useful.

He added that the first thing Washington wants to see is that Pyongyang is “prepared to engage constructively and prepared to meet its international obligations.” Crowley said that when the U.S. sees such signs, then it will evaluate if and when specific meetings would be useful.