Pyongyang: North Korea has criticised the United States for what it calls "misleading" claims that Washington's policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove Pyongyang to the negotiating table.

Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, attends the inter-Korean summit at the Peace House in the village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) in Paju, South Korea, on April 27. Credit:Bloomberg

The North's official news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman warning the claims are a "dangerous attempt" to ruin a budding detente on the Korean Peninsula after Kim Jong-un's summit late last month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

At the summit, Kim agreed to a number of measures aimed at improving North-South ties and indicated he is willing to discuss the denuclearisation of the peninsula, though exactly what that would entail and what conditions the North might require have not yet been explained.