U.S. Special Representative for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Stephen Bosworth told the press in Beijing Friday that the United States is open to bilateral engagement with the DPRK only in the context of six-party process.

"We would be open to bilateral engagement as well, but only in the context of the six-party process and as an effort to have our restart of six-party talks," which involves the DPRK, the United States, China, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan, aiming at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

He reiterated on behalf of the Obama administration its commitment to engage in dialogue with DPRK. "That remains very central to our policy."

Answering questions, he expressed concern on reports about DPRK's claim that its uranium enrichment program has moved to a final phase. "Obviously, anything that the North is doing in the area of nuclear development is of concern to us."

Bosworth briefed the press on his ongoing visit to East Asia, which started from Beijing on Thursday, and will bring him to Seoul Friday afternoon and Tokyo on Sunday.

He said the talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Wang Jiarui are "very good."

"We confirmed we and China share a very strong common approach to how to deal with challenges with North Korea (DPRK). We agreed that completing verifiable denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula remains our core objective of our ongoing efforts with the DPRK."

Bosworth said they also agreed that this is a problem that has the kind of manifestation that required be dealt with on a multilateral basis.

"We are very pleased with multilateral coordination among the five. We are particularly pleased with our ability to maintain a coordinated position on implementation of the UN Security resolutions and we intend to continue that."

The DPRK's official KCNA news agency reported on Friday that in a letter to the president of the UN Security Council, the DPRK said its "reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponized".

The letter, sent Thursday by the permanent representative of the DPRK to the United Nations, also said the "experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into the completion phase."

The DPRK conducted a nuclear test in May and fired several ballistic missiles on June 4, raising international concerns over regional security.

The UN Security Council on June 12 adopted Resolution 1874 that allowed wider sanctions against the DPRK over its nuclear test.

Rejecting the resolution, the DPRK announced it has quit the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Thursday confirmed at the routine press conference Bosworth and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il are visiting China at the same time.

Jiang said China is willing to work with related parties to push for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2009)