U.S., allies reject talks with North Korea

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The United States, South Korea and Japan are declining China's request for emergency talks with North Korea on the Korean Peninsula crisis, officials said.

China called during the weekend for the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia to engage in emergency talks with North Korea.

Obama administration officials said resuming talks with North Korea would amount to rewarding Pyongyang for actions during the past week that included an artillery attack on a South Korean island and disclosure of the existence of a uranium enrichment plant, The New York Times reported Monday.

"The United States and a host of others, I don't think, are not interested in stabilizing the region through a series of P.R. activities," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Gibbs said such talks would lack "seriousness of purpose" if there is no "understanding and agreement from the North Koreans to both end their behavior as they exhibited last week."

White House officials said Washington wants North Korea to take steps toward denuclearization.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak did not address China's proposal for a resumption of talks, but analysts told the newspaper the proposal was disappointing. A spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told the Times resumption of talks depends on whether North Korea modifies its behavior.