Verifiably denuclearizing North Korea, interdicting Pyongyang's proliferation activities and ensuring the implementation of U.N. resolutions are top priorities for the United States, the White House said Monday.

"North Korea's continued development of its nuclear and missile programs and proliferation activities poses a direct and serious threat to U.S. national security and that of our allies," the White House said in a fact sheet on President Barack Obama's "rebalance to Asia" policy.

The fact sheet was released as Obama headed to Asia after a summit in Turkey of the Group of 20 major economies to attend an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Philippines and then the East Asia Summit in Malaysia.

"Our priorities are: to work with regional partners to achieve the verifiable denuclearization of North Korea; to discourage, detect, and interdict North Korean proliferation activities; and to ensure all countries enforce UN Security Council resolutions related to North Korea," the White House said.

To address the broader risk of nuclear terrorism, the U.S. will "institutionalize the successes of the Nuclear Security Summit process," the White House said, including working with regional partners to reduce stockpiles of sensitive nuclear material, and enhance the security of such materials in storage, use and transport.

Strengthening the alliances with the treaty allies Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines was one of the achievements of the rebalance policy, the White House said, adding that the U.S. is modernizing alliance capabilities with South Korea and strengthening its ability to address threats from North Korea.

Stressing that promoting such universal values as rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is a key objective of the rebalance policy, the White House also said that the U.S. will "continue to explore and support ways of addressing the particularly egregious human rights situation in North Korea."

The U.S. also reiterated its commitment to safeguarding freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

"The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, and we support the right of all countries to do the same," the White House said.

During the trip to Asia, Obama will "urge all claimants in the South China Sea to halt further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarization of features they occupy, in order to reduce tensions and create diplomatic space for lasting, lawful, and peaceful solutions to emerge," the White House said. (Yonhap)