The United States said Thursday it will continue to raise North Korea's uranium enrichment program in the international arena to pressure the regime to take permanent steps toward denuclearization.
"Just because at one moment one step might not be feasible, it does not mean we should not continue to consult these issues," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters at the Foreign Press Club.
Crowley was responding to China's move Wednesday to block a United Nations committee from adopting a report condemning North Korea's uranium program, which could serve as a second way of making nuclear weapons aside from its plutonium program.
China, North Korea's staunchest communist ally and a veto power on the 15-member Security Council, has opposed addressing the uranium program, citing a lack of concrete evidence and its possible adverse impact on an early resumption of the six-party talks.
"We have great concerns about North Korean actions recently and longstanding," the spokesman said. "We are discussing these issues with countries in the region as well as in the context of the Security Council. We strongly believe that uranium enrichment should be part of that discussion.
"Any effort going forward needs to take into account and needs to include recent revelations regarding North Korea's uranium-enrichment program."
Crowley urged North Korea to "take permanent steps to denuclearize" and "give up its nuclear programs, all of them" if it wants to have "normal relations with its neighbors and the United States."
South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, said South Korea wants the Security Council to address North Korea's uranium program before the six-party talks' reopening.
Wi, who flew here earlier in the day, made the remarks while speaking to reporters after meeting with Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy; Robert Einhorn, the State Department's special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control; and Sung Kim, special envoy for the six-party talks.
"We are not seeking a security council resolution, but we are still trying hard so the security council could properly address the uranium issue," he said. "Our position is that the uranium issue should be dealt with at the security council or any other fora before we move to the six-party talks."
The South Korean envoy will meet Friday with Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, on the North's uranium program and ways to revive the multilateral nuclear talks.
The talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, have been deadlocked for more than two years over the North's missile and nuclear tests and attacks on a South Korean island and warship that killed 50 people last year.
Beijing wants the multilateral nuclear talks to reopen as soon as possible without any conditions attached, while Seoul and Washington insist that the North first apologize for its provocations.
Inter-Korean military talks broke down earlier this month as the North balked at Seoul's demand for an apology for the North's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of the warship Cheonan, dampening the reconciliatory mood Pyongyang has employed recently, apparently to attract food and economic aid through the resumption of aid-for-denuclearization talks.
Wi urged the North to improve ties with South Korea before any resumption of the multilateral nuclear talks.
"Currently, we don't think North Korea has fostered the atmosphere for the resumption of the six-party talks," he said. "North Korea needs to engage in inter-Korean dialogue and other things in advance."
On the possibility of South Korea and the U.S. resuming food aid to the North, Wi said Seoul and Washington should first gauge the food situation based on the outcome of international organizations currently operating in the North and how to secure transparency in the food distribution before making any decision.
The report of the U.N. panel monitoring sanctions on North Korea imposed after the North's nuclear and missile tests in 2009 says North Korea's uranium program is more advanced than that of Iran, and the North obviously began constructing it in the 1990s, although North Korea claimed it began the work in 2009.
U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper said last week that the North apparently has more uranium enrichment facilities than the one in its nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of its capital, Pyongyang. The North claims it is producing fuel for power generation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that North Korea's missiles and nuclear weapons will pose a threat to the U.S. within five years.
North Korea reportedly has completed the construction of a new, sophisticated missile launch site on its western coast near the Chinese border in an apparent bid to test-fire another ballistic missile that can reach the mainland United States.
Reports also said that Pyongyang is digging a new tunnel to prepare for a third nuclear test.
North Korea detonated nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009, and conducted long-range missile tests three times -- in 1998, 2006 and 2009 -- which were seen as a partial success.
The North is believed to have at least several nuclear weapons, with some experts saying it may have already developed nuclear warheads small enough to be mounted on ballistic missiles.