WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The United States on Sunday dismissed North Korea's continued threats to jettison its denuclearization commitments, reiterating it would be impossible for the communist nation to become a nuclear power.
"The position of the United States with respect to North Korea has not changed," a State Department official said, when asked about Washington's formal response to Pyongyang's recent saber-rattling.
"The international community will never accept the DPRK (North Korea) as a nuclear weapons power. We continue to hold the DPRK to its denuclearization commitments and obligations," the official added, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity.
In a 2005 deal reached at the now-defunct six-party talks, North Korea vowed to abandon all of its nuclear programs in exchange for political and economic incentives from its dialogue partners -- South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
The impoverished North is also required to stay away from nuclear activity under the U.N. resolutions adopted after its underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.
In a rare meeting with a senior U.S. government official in late September, two North Korean diplomats said Pyongyang would reconsider its policy on the historic nuclear agreement, according to news reports.
Clifford Hart, the Obama administration's special envoy to the six-way talks, met informally with Han Song-ryol, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, and Choe Son-hui, the deputy director-general of the North American affairs bureau at its foreign ministry, in the Chinese city of Dalian on the sidelines of the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue.
The North Koreans told Hart that Pyongyang "will not continue on its path to denuclearization, as promised in 2005" until Washington averts its "hostile policy," according to media in the U.S. and Japan.
The State Department official neither confirmed nor denied the reports, while stressing Washington is open to dialogue with Pyongyang.
"We have long made clear we are open to improved relations with the DPRK if it is willing to take clear actions to live up to its international obligations and commitments," said the official.
In July, North Korea's foreign ministry announced "the consistent hostile policy" toward it by the U.S. compels Pyongyang to "totally re-examine the nuclear issue."
The following month, the ministry issued a more strongly worded statement.
"Should the United States make a wrong choice, our nuclear possession will be prolonged and our nuclear deterrent will be updated and expanded beyond imagination," it said.
On a visit to Seoul last week, the top U.S. point man on North Korea Glyn Davies described Pyongyang's nuclear threats as "troubling."
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