North Korea’s state-run news agency Saturday belatedly reported the U.S.-China summit held in Washington last week but stopped short of commenting on the results of the discussions.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama exchanged views on international and regional issues, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

“The China-U.S. joint statement issued on Jan. 19 emphasized the importance of an improvement in the North-South relations for the purpose of defusing the tension on the peninsula and called for inter-Korean dialogue,” the KCNA said.

During Wednesday’s summit, Obama and Hu urged North Korea to “avoid further provocations,” saying that “the paramount goal must be complete denuclearization of the peninsula.”

The leaders also emphasized the importance of an improvement in North-South relations and agreed that sincere and constructive inter-Korean dialogue is an essential step.

In its latest conciliatory gesture, North Korea on Thursday offered to hold high-level defense talks with Seoul to discuss its November shelling of the South’s Yeonpyeong Island and the March sinking of the warship Cheonan.

South Korea accepted the proposal, saying it wants Pyongyang to apologize for the two deadly incidents and pledge never to repeat such attacks. Details of the defense talks will be discussed in a working-level meeting, and the South plans to propose a specific date for the working-level talks this week. 

(Yonhap News)