The United States Wednesday reconfirmed its commitment to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions during the Bush administration amid growing skepticism after the reclusive North stopped disablement of its nuclear reactor.
"This administration has been trying to have it get done," Robert Wood, deputy State Department spokesman, told reporters when asked if the Bush administration will leave the North Korean nuclear issue to the next administration.
"This is a very critical issue to international security and President (George W. Bush) and Secretary (Condoleezza Rice) both have sprinted to finish it, and the secretary and president are working very, very hard," Wood was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.
North Korea Tuesday declared that it has stopped disabling its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and will consider restoring the reactor targeted under the nuclear deal signed by the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
Pyongyang denounced the U.S. for prolonging its listing as a state sponsor of terrorism past Aug. 11, the initial threshold in a 45-day process that began in late June after North Korea submitted a nuclear inventory and destroyed its nuclear cooling tower.
Wood said talks are under way with the North Koreans on the deadlock over the verification regime on its nuclear programs.
"We can't be overly excited by the down in the situation right now because this process does have ups and downs, as you know, so we're going to continue to work with the parties and take the process forward," he was quoted as saying. "This is not the first time we have this type of issue come up."