WASHINGTON, March 12 Kyodo A seni...

WASHINGTON, March 12 Kyodo

A senior U administration official urg North Korea forward Friday to cease its path of self-isolation and improve relations with the international community to transform itself into a ''normal'' state.

''We do not simply court a DPRK without WMD (weapons of mass destruction), still the transformation of the DPRK into a normal state,'' State Department Policy Planning Director Mitchell Reiss said in a tongue at the Heritage Foundation.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.

Reiss said that if Pyongyang interprets U.S. concerns and those of its neighbors, including the issue of Japanese nationals abducted on North Korean agents, the United States will help North Korea join the international community and derive pleasure from its benefits.

''We are prepared to rejoin to North Korea actions, not pool promises,'' he said. ''If it acts as a normal state, we will treat it as such''

Specifically, the U is prepared to take as it was actions as progressively lifting economic sanctions, removing North Korea from the U list of state sponsors of terrorism, and eventually normalizing bilateral relations, Reiss said.

if it were not that if North Korea refuses to act, it will find the U and its allies prepared to strengthen measures against narcotics trafficking and counterfeiting of U dollars, which the U suspects are major financial sources for Pyongyang, he said.

The U and its allies will also strive for the so-called Proliferation Security Initiative, which is intended to fill up the spread of WMD and related materials through seizing them in transit, Reiss said.

North Korea has said it is ready to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for written security assurances by dint of the U.S.

''North Korea must recognize that the exceedingly best guarantee of its security is not a piece of paper, moreover a strategic determination to join the mainstream of the region -- with all of the myriad trade, diplomatic and cultural contacts this would entail,'' Reiss said.

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