A North Korean delegation has arrived in Sweden for talks on nuclear disarmament with the United States, while US President Donald Trump has said he wants to resume negotiations with North Korea after months of deadlock.
"We are heading for negotiations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States at the working level," chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myung-gil said earlier Thursday.
"A new signal has emerged from the American side, so we are going and we have high expectations and optimism about the results."
In Washington, the State Department did not want to reveal the identity of the head of her delegation, nor the location and date of the meeting.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States remained committed to resuming nuclear talks with North Korea despite Pyongyang's missile test.
"They want to talk, and we'll talk to them soon," he told reporters at the White House.
In an effort to resolve the stalemate in North Korea's nuclear program, Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to restore dialogue during a meeting in June.
The travel of Korean officials comes a day after North Korea said it had successfully tested a "new type" ballistic missile launched from a submarine.
Experts said Pyongyang consistently combines a diplomatic approach with military bullying as a means of pressuring the other side, and it may think these methods are paying off.
North Korea continued to praise Trump, who called it "bold and wise."
Relations between Washington and Pyongyang improved after Trump sacked US National Security Adviser John Bolton, a "hawk" for calling for war.
A deal with Pyongyang is one of the most important foreign policy initiatives of Trump, who held two summits with Kim in an effort to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
Despite the collapse of the second summit in Hanoi in February and the stalemate that followed, Trump continued to express optimism for a deal, stressing his strong personal relationship with Kim.