U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday reaffirmed her pledge to denuclearize North Korea through the six-party talks, dismissing concerns that the Barack Obama administration may take a softer line to focus on the spread of nuclear technology.
"I want it known very clearly that we remain absolutely committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, that North Korea entered into an agreement to do that," Clinton said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
She was talking in Tokyo, the first stop on her weeklong Asian tour that began on Sunday and will take her to South Korea, China and Indonesia as well.
"And if they proceed as they had already agreed, and verifiably and completely eliminate their nuclear programme, there are benefits," Clinton said. "That's a quid pro quo."
Concerns have lingered that the Obama administration will focus on nonproliferation rather than on the North's denuclearization due to the failure of previous U.S. administrations to quell North Korean nuclear ambitions, first discerned in the early 1990s.
Clinton told a news conference in Tokyo earlier in the day that she regrets that the former Bush administration scrapped the Agreed Framework signed under the administration of her husband, Bill Clinton, in 1994, aimed at freezing of North Korea's plutonium-producing reactor in return for economic benefits.
"If we could turn the clock back, we would not have let that occur," she said.
The Bush administration did not honour the framework agreement, citing North Korea's suspected uranium-based nuclear programme in violation of the agreement, paving the way for the North to produce scores of kilogrammes of plutonium capable of making several nuclear warheads.
North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in 2006, prompting the alarmed Bush administration to hurriedly agree on a six-party deal for the North's nuclear dismantlement in exchange for energy and economic aid and diplomatic recognition by Washington and Tokyo.
Ironically, the six-party deal failed to specifically touch on the alleged uranium program, which had triggered the scrapping of the 1994 agreement.
The multilateral talks have since been on and off before hitting the latest snag in December, when North Korea refused to agree to a verification regime for its nuclear facilities.
At the press conference, Clinton repeated her proposal to normalize ties with Pyongyang, establish a peace treaty to replace a fragile armistice on the Korean Peninsula and provide massive economic aid -- all stipulated by the six-party process if the North denuclearizes itself.
"But the decision as to whether North Korea will cooperate in the six-party talks, end provocative language and actions, is up to them and we are watching very closely," she said.
She was talking about the threats made by North Korea in recent weeks to cut off all ties with South Korea and launch a long-range missile theoretically capable of reaching the continental U.S.
"The possible missile launch that North Korea is talking about would be very unhelpful," Clinton said.
Clinton's arrival in Tokyo Monday coincided with other provocative remark from North Korea: that it had the right to develop space technology, an apparent justification of its imminent ballistic missile launch.
The North launched a Daepodong I long-range missile in 1998 and sent part of its debris into seas south of Alaska, leading then-President Clinton to send Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang in the first such visit by any U.S. top diplomat, and pledged himself to make a trip to the capital of the reclusive communist state.
President Clinton did not keep the pledge due to lack of time in his waning months, and recently said he regretted that.
The second long-range missile firing came in the summer of 2006, just months before the North's first nuclear test in October of that year. The second missile test was seen as a failure as it flew for less than a minute before plunging into seas between North Korea and Japan.
Since then, North Korea is said to have refined its long range missile technology.
Secretary Clinton, who will be in Seoul Thursday, said last week that she hoped to engage North Korea "in the weeks and months ahead" through bilateral and multilateral talks, although she said her Asian trip includes neither a stop in Pyongyang nor a meeting with North Korean officials.
The outgoing U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, Christopher Hill, visited Seoul Sunday to prepare for Clinton's visit. Hill, who concurrently served as chief U.S. nuclear negotiator over the past four years, said he discussed with South Korean officials "the concerns we have about behavior of late."
Meanwhile, Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's ceremonial head of state, said Sunday, the eve of the 67th birthday of leader Kim Jong-il, that North Korea will "develop relations with countries that are friendly toward us."