"The maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify but if you want to talk, we’ll talk," Nauert told reporters on Tuesday.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in's spokesman told reporters earlier in the day that US officials had signaled a willingness to negotiate with North Korea during a meeting with South Korea’s leader on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics.
Pence also reportedly said that the United States was preparing new agressive sanctions against Pyongyang.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated drastically last year due to the North's nuclear activity, which led to the UN Security Council imposing its toughest ever sanctions on the country.
In November, North Korea tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile, which according to Pyongyang, would have been capable of hitting any part of the US mainland.
