Speaking at a joint press conference at the White House with
Chinese President Hu Jintao, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "I
told President Hu that we appreciated China's role in reducing
tensions on the Korean Peninsula. And we agreed that North Korea
must avoid further provocations. We agreed that the paramount goal
must be complete denuclearization of the peninsula."

   Obama made his remarks after an intensive dialogue with Hu in
the morning, following an official arrival ceremony that included a
21-gun salute on the White House South Lawn.

   The dialogue extensively touched upon North Korea, Iran's
nuclear ambitions, the Chinese currency yuan's revaluation, human
rights and climate change, the leaders said.

   Hu later attended a luncheon at the State Department hosted by
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary Hillary Clinton, and visited
a new Chinese embassy complex before attending a state dinner at
the White House. On Thursday, Hu will visit congressional leaders
on Capitol Hill and give a speech at a luncheon meeting with
business leaders before leaving for Chicago later in the day.

   "North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program is
increasingly a direct threat to the security of the United States
and our allies," Obama said.

   Obama was apparently referring to remarks by U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, who said last week that North Korea's
missiles and nuclear weapons will pose a threat to the U.S. within
five years and urged the North to impose a moratorium on nuclear
and missile testing to help revive the six-party nuclear talks.

   The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement have
been deadlocked for more than two years over the North's nuclear
and missile tests and the shelling of a South Korean front-line
island and the torpedoing of a South Korean warship last year that
killed 50 people, including two civilians.

   The six-party deal, signed in 2005 by the two Koreas, the U.S.,
China, Japan and Russia, calls for the North's nuclear
dismantlement in return for massive economic aid and diplomatic and
political benefits.

   Hu, for his part, said that he and the U.S. president had agree
to strengthen cooperation for North Korea's denuclearization.

   "President Obama and I exchanged views on major international
and regional issues, including the situation on the Korean
Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue, climate change and others,"
Hu said. "China and the United States will enhance coordination and
cooperation and work with the relevant parties to maintain peace
and stability on the peninsula, promote denuclearization of the
peninsula, and achieve lasting peace and security in Northeast Asia."

   Obama singled out North Korea's uranium enrichment program.
   "The international community must continue to state clearly
that North Korea's uranium enrichment program is in violation of
North Korea's commitments and international obligations," he said.

   North Korea revealed in November a uranium enrichment plant
that could serve as a second way of building nuclear bombs in
addition to its existing plutonium program. Pyongyang insists the
facility is producing fuel for power generation.

   South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has called for the U.N.
Security Council to discuss the North's uranium program, although
China is reluctant to acknowledge the existence of such a program
citing a lack of first-hand information.

   Beijing, a veto power in the U.N. Security Council, has greatly
diluted a council statement on the Cheonan's sinking -- blamed on
North Korea by an international investigation team, and has not yet
denounced Pyongyang for the sinking and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong.

   Seoul and Washington insist that Pyongyang apologize for the
shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of the Cheonan before
any resumption of bilateral or multilateral talks.

   China has called for the reopening of the six-party talks
without any conditions attached.

   In an interview Sunday, Hu called for an early resumption of
the six-party talks, expressing hope that "the relevant parties
will seize the opportunity to engage in active interactions, resume
the process of dialogue and consultation as soon as possible, and
ensure that the situation on the peninsula will move forward in a
positive direction."

   North Korea is under U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear
and missile tests in 2009.

   Despite international pressure to rein in North Korea, China
has been reluctant to sanction the country as any instability could
result in a massive influx of North Korean refugees across their
shared border or a unified Korean Peninsula under the control of
South Korea, supported by the U.S.

   Clinton last week called on China to do more to restrain North
Korea, heavily dependent on its communist neighbor for energy, food
and other necessities, but backed away Tuesday when she said, "When
it comes to North Korea, we know that that's a particularly
sensitive issue because North Korea is China's neighbor, and we are
working intensely to find a way that we can change the behavior of
North Korea."

   Pyongyang in recent weeks has proposed unconditional
inter-Korean dialogue. Seoul and Washington dismissed the North's
proposals as traditional brinkmanship and insisted that the North's
rapprochement with South Korea should precede any resumption of
bilateral or multilateral talks.

   Appearing Wednesday on NBC's "Today," Clinton called for closer
cooperation between the U.S. and China in North Korea.

   "We want to see more cooperation dealing with the very thorny
problem of North Korea, its nuclear ambitions, its provocative
behavior that is destabilizing Northeast Asia," she said.

   The top U.S. diplomat also told CBS's "Early Show" that
Washington has been closely consulting with other members of the
six-party talks to rein in North Korea.

   "We are engaged in an ongoing discussion with the Chinese, as
well as the South Koreans and the Japanese and the Russians, all
who are members of the so-called six-party talks, about what we
must do in order to restrain North Korea's nuclear program and its
provocative behavior," she said. "We're going to continue to work
with our Chinese counterparts. The fact is that a stable,
nuclear-free Korean Peninsula is in both Chinese and American interests." (Yonhap News)