The U.S. government has reiterated its call for North Korea's denuclearization efforts.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a regular briefing that the U.S. urges restraint in regards to North Korea's renewed threats of a nuclear war. She called Pyongyang to take steps to reassure the international community that it is serious about working with the U.S. on the denuclearization agenda.

Nuland said Washington is waiting to see what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is going to choose to do, but it's also warning against any further provocation.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York Monday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon blamed South Korea for invalidating all inter-Korean agreements and driving cross-border relations into a worse state.

He also said U.S. hostile policy on Pyongyang is raising tension and the Korean Peninsula has become the most dangerous region in the world in which a nuclear war can break out.