"It is a statement about what may happen if something that hasn't happened, happened, if you follow my drift. It is still deeply hypothetical," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

North Korea has since November boycotted six-nation talks on ending its atomic drive, saying it will only come back to the table after the US lifts financial sanctions.

"The strong preference of the United States and the other parties to the six-party talks, other than North Korea, is for North Korea to rejoin the talks, to sit down at the table," said Snow.

The negotiations involve the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, the United States and China.

Echoing the White House's stance, the State Department said the United States had no plans to launch an attack on North Korea.

"As the president and the secretary have made clear, the United States has no intention of invading or attacking North Korea," said Julie Reside, a State Department spokeswoman.

The six nations involved in negotiations with North Korea have set out "a framework whereby North Korea could achieve a fundamentally different relationship with both the United States and its neighbours in the context of the complete and verifiable elimination of its nuclear weapons and nuclear programs," Reside said.

In a joint declaration brokered in September 2005, North Korea agreed in principle to end its atomic weapons program in return for security and diplomatic guarantees and critical energy aid.

The six-party talks were suspended last November when Washington rejected Pyongyang's demand for the removal of US sanctions imposed on a Macao-based bank for allegedly distributing counterfeit US dollars and laundering money for the Stalinist state.

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