(CNN) Vice President Mike Pence did not deliberately snub North Koreans at an Olympic reception, according to US officials who pushed back on South Korean reports that Pence deliberately came late to a VIP gathering Friday evening and then snubbed officials from Pyongyang.

Officials traveling with Pence to the 23rd Olympic Winter Games in South Korea were responding to reports that Pence had gone around a main table and greeted everyone except Kim Yong Nam, North Korea's nominal head of state. These officials said that while Pence did not greet Kim Yong Nam, he didn't deliberately skip over him. Instead, they said, Kim simply wasn't seated in the area where Pence was receiving well-wishers.

The officials said it was fair to say both Pence and the North Koreans rebuffed South Korean President Moon Jae-in's efforts to facilitate a meeting between North Korea and the US.

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North Korea has sent some of the highest level officials ever to the south for these games, the result of diplomacy by Seoul that led to an agreement between the two countries -- still formally at war -- to participate together in the Winter Games. Athletes from the two countries marched side by side during the opening ceremony and have formed a joint women's hockey team.

But Pence has not let up on the tough rhetoric he's been delivering since arriving in Asia. Speaking to NBC's "Nightly News" on Thursday, the vice president continued to stress that the US would protect itself from North Korean nuclear threats by taking whatever "action is necessary to defend our homeland."

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