WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that it's still premature to consider a trip to North Korea with its leader turning a deaf ear to international calls for democratization.

On a historic trip to Myanmar apparently as part of the Barack Obama administration's efforts to reach out to despotic rulers willing to "unclench their fists," Clinton said Washington is focusing on an area that shows tangible signs of change.

When asked if she will go to North Korea or Cuba, she tersely said no.

"I think that if they ever had a leader who did things like begin releasing political prisoners and -- on a wide scale -- set up a system for elections and the like, then we'd think about it," she said in an interview with BBC, according to a transcript released by her department. " But right now, we're focused on what we could see happening here."

The U.S. has been calling for North Korea to take steps toward denuclearization and address its abysmal human rights record. The two sides had high-level direct talks in July and October, which U.S. officials said were intended to see whether Pyongyang is ready for serious negotiations.

The U.S. said there was some progress in the talks in New York and Geneva but it has yet to get a satisfactory answer from the North with regard to U.S. demands, including a halt to its uranium enrichment program.

Stephen Bosworth, a former top U.S. envoy on the North, said he expects at least one more round of bilateral talks between the two sides before the resumption of the six-way nuclear talks that also involve South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
(Yonhap)