WASHINGTON, June 10 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. special envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth said the U.S. has no plans to carry out military action in North Korea or overthrow its existing government.
Bosworth made the announcement during the Korea Society's annual dinner in New York on Tuesday.
"We have no intention to invade North Korea or change its regime through force, and this has been made clear to the DPRK repeatedly," Bosworth said
Bosworth said that North Korea's claim that it is responding to a threat or hostile U.S. policy was "simply groundless." He also said that the United States was still attempting to renew the six-party talks with the reclusive state and would continue working with other UN members.
North Korea has pulled out of the talks with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia.
"Of course we want North Korea to come out of its caves and enter the community of creative nations," former secretary of state Henry Kissinger who was also at the dinner said. "But what they can't do is come out of the caves and duck back into it every six months, kicking over all the agreements they have made as they came out."
China on Tuesday called on the U.S. and South Korea to use a diplomatic approach to resolve its dispute with North Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will travel to the United States next week for talks with President Barack Obama to discuss North Korea's nuclear program.
Pyongyang is under threat of further UN sanctions following its reported May 25 nuclear test. A number of UN sanctions were imposed after the communist state carried out its first nuclear test in 2006.
Among the possible new sanctions, include a ban on importing and exporting all arms and not just heavy weapons, additional asset freezes and travel bans for North Korean officials, as well as placing more firms on a UN blacklist, according to UN sources.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that the Obama administration was considering placing North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Bush administration had earlier removed North Korea from the list after it began dismantling its nuclear sites.
