U.S. urges N. Korea to halt uranium enrichment program

   WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. government on Thursday dismissed North Korea's claim that its uranium enrichment program has a peaceful purpose, saying Pyongyang still falls short of Washington's expectations for initial steps to resume full-fledged talks.
   "We don't see any reason for that to meet civilian needs," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
   She enumerated measures the North should take before seeking further dialogue on denuclearization and bilateral relations.
   Top diplomats from North Korea and the U.S. met in New York late last month in what U.S. officials described as an "exploratory" meeting to see if the communist nation is serious about negotiations.
   Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, heading the North's delegation to the talks, told reporters that his country's uranium program is designed for power generation.
   In the latest development, the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, reportedly said in a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier this week that his country is willing to rejoin the six-way talks "without preconditions" and impose a moratorium on nuclear testing and missile launches.
   The department official reiterated that those steps are "insufficient."
   In the New York meeting, she said, the U.S. clarified what the North should do.
   "There are no secrets there in terms of our listed expectations vis-a-vis North Korea," Nuland said. "So when they come forward with a couple of them, as we said, it's still insufficient."
   She said the North should stop its uranium-based nuclear development, improve relations with South Korea and abide by a 2005 agreement with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan to abandon its nuclear program in return for political and economic rewards.
   "We need to see them taking concrete steps along all those lines," she said.
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