"We are not seeking regime change. We are seeking a change in this regime's behavior," said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.

"We have the regime that we have, and we have to deal with them," Hill said in testimony before the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

"We don't have the option of walking away from this problem," he said.

But he restated Washington's long-held stance that talks could only occur in the six-party forum, and not one-on-one.

"We are not prepared to improve our relations with North Korea or to have this direct dialogue while they are boycotting the six-party talks.

"At the end of the day, if this problem of nuclear weapons -- weapons of mass destruction -- is going to be resolved, it's going to have to be resolved in the six-party process."

"If they are prepared to do that, we are prepared to sit down informally, bilaterally, and work through our bilateral issues, which include human rights concerns and other issues as well," Hill said.

The diplomat added however that "the United States, one way or the other, is not going to accept a North Korea with weapons of mass destruction."

But congressional critics at the hearing accused the George W. Bush administration or being too "passive" in its dealings with Pyongyang.

"Our policy toward North Korea has been dormant for too long," said Democratic Senator Russ Feingold.

"We have been waiting on the sidelines hoping almost passively that conditions will turn our way. We have been distracted by Iraq -- so much so, that it took North Korea's launch of seven missiles before we got fully engaged again," said Feingold.

"North Korea should be at or near the top of the foreign policy agenda," the senator said.

North Korea has shunned the six-way talks since November to protest US financial sanctions on a Macau bank accused of money laundering on its behalf.

Pyongyang fired seven missiles, including a long-distance ballistic missile, in an exercise on July 5, saying it was boosting its defenses against a potential US attack.

Meanwhile, the chief delegates of Japan and South Korea, which has been reconciling with its communist neighbor, said Thursday they would push North Korea to return to talks during a regional forum in Kuala Lumpur next week.

Japan and South Korea have said they will use next week's ASEAN regional security forum in Malaysia to push for North Korea's return to six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear arms.

The UN Security Council last week unanimously adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's missile tests and applying limited sanctions, but the move was rejected by Pyongyang, which vowed to carry out further launches.

The compromise resolution demanded the immediate suspension of Pyongyang's ballistic missile program and imposed sanctions preventing the Stalinist country from buying and selling missile technology.

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