US may consider other options on North Korea

The United States will examine other options than the stalled six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's atomic arms programme if Pyongyang fails to return to the negotiating table, a US official said on Thursday. The talks between North and South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan have been on hold for a year because Pyongyang has boycotted them, saying Washington's policy toward the Stalinist state is hostile.
North Korea said in February it was a nuclear weapons state and needed the deterrent against a possible US invasion.
In a statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board of governors, a US official said Washington wanted diplomacy to be given a chance to work.
"But for this to happen, the DPRK (North Korea) must do its part by returning to the table without preconditions and abandoning its pursuit of nuclear weapons," said Chris Ford, a senior official and member of the US delegation to the IAEA.
"Otherwise, we will have to consult with our allies and partners on other options," he said, without specifying what options Washington would be prepared to consider.
Ford did not link this to a deadline, though later in the speech he said the five other parties in the talks agreed Pyongyang should return to the bargaining table "immediately".
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the official name of North Korea.
In Pyongyang, visiting South Korean Unification Minister Dong-young Chung urged the communist North to make an effort to resolve the nuclear crisis in a high-level meeting on Thursday, but Pyongyang skirted talk of the stand-off as it played host to a nationalist festival.
South Korea's foreign minister said in April Seoul was prepared to discuss with Washington taking North Korea to the UN Security Council, which has the power to impose economic sanctions, if Pyongyang continued to snub the talks.
Pyongyang expelled all IAEA inspectors on December 31, 2002, and later withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the first state to pull out of the global pact against the spread of atomic arms.
Ford urged North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks as this was the only way for it to normalise relations with the international community.
"It (North Korea) has stayed away for nearly 12 months and has deepened its isolation through a series of belligerent statements that cast increasing doubt on its stated commitment to denuclearising the Korean peninsula," Ford said.