NEW YORK, Sept 23 (AFP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell reaffirmed Thursday the goal of the United States to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, shrugging off North Korea's charges that Washington practised double standards.
"We are used to this kind of North Korean rhetoric," Powell told reporters when asked about a recent statement by Pyongyang that South Korea's shock revelation it carried out nuclear experiments showed Washington applied "double standards" towards the two Koreas.
North Korea has hardened its stance since the South recently disclosed its own nuclear experiments -- to enrich uranium four years ago and to extract a small amount of plutonium in the 1980s.
Both enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to manufacture atomic bombs, but South Korea said its experiments were purely for academic purposes.
Powell said Thursday the United States would push ahead with efforts to dismantle nuclear weapons from the Korean pensinsula for the interest of the people there.
"What we all are working on is how to make sure that the people of the Korean peninsula can live in peace and security without nuclear weapons being on the peninsula. That is our goal," he said before meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon.
Powell and Ban, who are attending the UN General Assembly in New York, were to meet at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
Reports that North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a missile capable of hitting most areas in Japan have placed US and South Korean military authorities in Seoul on alert this week.
Japan and the US, along with the two Koreas, China and Russia have held three rounds of talks on curbing the North's nuclear weapons drive in return for diplomatic concessions and possible economic aid.
A fourth round was scheduled for this month but Pyongyang has refused to return to the negotiating table, citing Washington's hostile policy and South Korea's nuclear experiments.
The dispute over North Korea's nuclear ambitions flared in October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of operating a nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 agreement.
Pyongyang has denied running the uranium-based program but has restarted its plutonium program.