North Korea says it’s ready to discuss easing tension and nuclear weapons and is proposing high-level talks with the United States.

So far in 2013, we’ve had nuclear weapons and missile tests from North Korea, followed by bellicose rhetoric and shutting down the few threads of contact with the South and the outside world.

And then came relative silence and a sudden desire to talk with South Korea, although the agreement to hold high-level talks with Seoul collapsed last week over what ought to have been minor details.

But now we have the statement from Pyongyang’s official news agency, proposing “high-level talks between the North Korean and U.S. governments to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and establish regional peace and security.”

The spokesman said North Korea and the United States could meet “any time and at any place the United States wants,” in order to “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

It should be noted that Pyongyang issued a similar statement last year, before the erratic and unpredictable antics of 2013.