US envoy Mr James Kelly said today said the US wanted a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis, but warned Pyongyang to "immediately" drop its nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Kelly said the US would continue to work with South Korea, Japan and other allies to prompt an "immediate and visible dismantling" of North Korea's nuclear programme.
"We hope ... to bring maximum international pressure (on North Korea) to abandon its nuclear ambition," he said.
Two weeks ago Mr Kelly, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, made the first high-level US contact with the regime in nearly two years when he travelled to Pyongyang to confront North Korea with evidence that it was running a nuclear programme.
He said the North had been engaged in an enriched uranium nuclear programme for years and the United States had yet to determine the next step if the Stalinist regime pushed ahead with it.
"There is no deadline to this. This is a difficult and complex problem," he said. "We're just going to have to see how it unfolds."
Mr Kelly was speaking after meeting with top advisors to President Kim Dae-Jung and South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong following his arrival here from Beijing, where he held two rounds of talks on the nuclear crisis with Chinese officials.
AFP
