U.S. Looks to China to Rein In North Korea

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that they have no new or conclusive evidence to indicate that North Korea is acting on threats to produce additional plutonium for nuclear warheads or to conduct a nuclear arms test.

Instead, the officials indicated that the U.S. delivered a message to the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday asking that Beijing stress the need for the North Koreans to tone down their rhetoric and not act on any of their threats.

Spokesmen for the National Security Council and the State Department declined to comment on the U.S. message, citing policies against discussing private diplomatic communications or intelligence matters. They also refused to confirm what sources have described as unexplained activity spotted by American satellites monitoring suspected North Korean nuclear facilities.

"We've been concerned about recent provocative North Korean statements on their nuclear program and intentions and have shared those concerns with our partners in the six-party process," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

He was referring to the stalled talks among the United States, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its atomic aspirations.

"We continue to believe that such statements do nothing to bring this issue to a resolution," Casey said. "On the contrary, they only further isolate North Korea."

In recent weeks, officials in Pyongyang declared they could export nuclear weapons to terrorists if they chose to. They also have said they shut down a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon to remove the spent fuel to reprocess the plutonium and produce more nuclear weapons.

South Korean officials said they had no indication that North Korea was planning a nuclear test. But they said they too were concerned about the hardening of rhetoric and the activities at Yongbyon, North Korea's main nuclear campus about 60 miles north of the capital.

Of particular concern to the U.S. have been statements by North Korean Vice Minister Kim Gye Gwan, who told visiting American scholar Selig S. Harrison this month that North Korea is not planning to transfer nuclear material to terrorists but could do so if "the United States drives us into a corner."