North Korea has called for military talks with the United States for peace and security on the peninsula.
Washington has said it can discuss a peace treaty after Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons programme.
Pyongyang is set to receive a team of UN nuclear personnel tomorrow who are to oversee the shutdown of its reactor and source of weapons-grade plutonium.
Six-way talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programmes are set to resume on Wednesday in Beijing.
The North, which has long sought direct talks with the United States, usually holds bilateral meetings with US officials within those discussions.
"The Korean People's Army side proposes having talks between the DPRK and US militaries to be attended by a UN representative," the North's military said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
The North, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said the talks would be for "discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula".
US officials have said in recent weeks that Washington is ready to discuss normalising ties and a peace treaty to end the Korean War if the North follows up on its recent progress in disarmament and completely scraps its atomic arms programme.