Speech: Nuke-free N. Korea deadline nears

SEOUL, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The United States has until 2012 to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program, a former U.S. diplomat says.

North Korea has a stated goal of becoming strong and prosperous by 2012, the centennial anniversary of the national founder Kim Il Sung's birth, South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday.

Donald Gregg, National Security Adviser to President George H.W. Bush, said former President George W. Bush waited until the last two years of his administration before seeking a dialogue with Pyongyang and urged President Barack Obama not to wait much longer.

"My suggestion would be that during the next three years before the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth we have perhaps the last opportunity to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons," Gregg said during the Jeju Peace Forum on South Korea's Jeju Island. "For that to happen it is going to take a sustained and sincere dialogue between U.S. and Pyongyang, in conjunction with Pyongyang's return to (nuclear disarmament) talks."

Washington must be prepared to engage in higher level discussions with North Korea, Gregg said, dismissing comments that Obama's policy has moved from denuclearization to containment, Yonhap said.

"The objective is very clear. We want to have a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," said Gregg, who was the U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 1989 to 1993. "The desire for a verifiably nuclear-free Korean Peninsula is a goal we share very fully with South Korea."