United States hopes that the ongoing negotiations over revising its nuclear cooperation accord with South Korea can be completed early next year, the U.S.ambassador to Seoul said Sunday.
   
Seoul and Washington have entered the final stretch of renewing the 1974 accord over Seoul's civilian nuclear energy use, but the two sides are widely expected to miss the year-end target of concluding the talks due to several issues, such as whether to allow Seoul to reprocess spent nuke fuel.
   
Mark Lippert, U.S. ambassador to South Korea, told a TV program of state-run broadcaster KBS that he cannot comment on details as the negotiations are still underway, but there has been significant progress in the talks.
  
He said that the two sides are feeling that they are moving in the right direction, expressing hopes that the negotiations could be wrapped up early next year.
   
The main sticking point for the talks is whether and to what extent Washington will allow Seoul to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
   
South Korea is hoping to win the right to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel to address the headache of growing nuclear waste. But the U.S. has been reluctant to grant it, apparently due to the possible negative impact on its global nonproliferation campaign amid concerns over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
   
Touching on the North's nuclear concerns, Lippert said that the U.S. is seeking to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue, but it is Pyongyang that has refused to do so.
   
The envoy said that the international community would willingly talk with Pyongyang if North Korea shows commitment toward denuclearization in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.
   
The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been dormant since late 2008 when North Korea left the negotiation table.
   
Pyongyang, which conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, is now insisting that the six-party talks should be resumed without preconditions. But Seoul and Washington have demanded the North first take concrete steps demonstrating its commitment to denuclearization.
   
Lippert said that North Korea has not shown its willingness to have a dialogue, adding that Pyongyang has moved in an opposite direction by carrying out an alleged cyber attack and provocations, as well as revoking proposed high-level talks with South Korea.
   
The ambassador said that a series of Pyongyang's actions have invited additional sanctions by the international community, further isolating the country.
   
He referred to North Korea's recent suspected hacking on Sony Pictures Entertainment over "The Interview," a lowbrow comedy movie involving a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

U.S. President Barack Obama had earlier pledged a "proportional" response to Pyongyang's recent cyber attack.
  
The envoy said that the U.S. takes this issue seriously and will continue to study various options to properly deal with it. (Yonhap)