Hillary’s Smart Power Team Brainstorms Over N. Korea

The U.S. State Department, headed by its new chief Hillary Clinton, is in brainstorming to review its various options to deal with North Korea’s nuclear program, the department’s spokesman said Friday.

"Secretary (Hilary) Clinton is very committed to trying to deal with this issue of North Korea's nuclear program," spokesman Robert Wood said in a daily news briefing, Yonhap News reported Saturday.

Wood stopped short of setting a timeline for the review process, saying it would "be a review of a wide range of things: documents, consultation with experts and previous administration officials.

“That's all part of a review, and I can't put a timeline on it," he said.

At her confirmation hearing, Clinton said she would engage North Korea directly as well as through the six-party talks to address the communist nation's alleged uranium-based nuclear program and suspected proliferation activities, as well as its plutonium-producing reactor.

Clinton also said that as secretary of state she would employ "smart power," which she pointed out "requires reaching out to both friends and adversaries, to bolster old alliances and to forge new ones."