US President Donald Trump on Monday said he would not rule out meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, saying he would be "honoured to do it," despite weeks of tough talk against the regime.
"If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him I would absolutely. I would be honored to do it," Mr Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Tensions with North Korea have soared in recent weeks, amid Pyongyang's series of provocative missile tests.
The Trump administration has repeatedly warned "all options are on the table" when it comes to dealing with North Korea's missile and nuclear programs -- but it also stressed last week it is open to direct talks with Pyongyang.
"If it's under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that," Mr Trump said.
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Meanwhile, North Korea has warned it will carry out a nuclear test "at any time and at any location" set by its leadership, in the latest rhetoric to fuel jitters in the region.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test -- and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response.
A spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said Pyongyang was "fully ready to respond to any option taken by the US".
The regime will continue bolstering its "preemptive nuclear attack" capabilities unless Washington scrapped its hostile policies, he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.
"The DPRK's measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership," the spokesman added, apparently referring to a sixth nuclear test and using the North's official name, the Democratic Republic of Korea.
The North has carried out five nuclear tests in the last 11 years and is widely believed to be making progress towards its dream of building a missile capable of delivering a warhead to the continental United States.
It raises the tone of its warnings every spring, when Washington and Seoul carry out joint exercises it condemns as rehearsals for invasion, but this time fears of conflict have been fuelled by a cycle of threats from both sides.
The joint drills have just ended, but naval exercises are continuing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) with a US strike group led by the aircraft carrier US Carl Vinson.
The Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman said if the North was not armed with "the powerful nuclear force", Washington would have "committed without hesitation the same brigandish aggression act in Korea as what it committed against other countries".