The Bush administration is facing growing calls to engage in direct talks with North Korea. The issue has received heightened attention following North Korea’s announcement Monday it’s carried out a successful nuclear test. At the United Nations Wednesday, Secretary General Kofi Annan called for more US engagement.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: “I believe that we should, U.S. and North Korea should talk, they did talk in the past and obviously we have the six party talks and everyone is urging them to go back to the six party talks and negotiate very seriously and I hope that the six party talks can resume. And so, the talks are necessary, whether it’s done in the context of the six party talks or separately, one must talk.”

In the nation’s capital, President Bush said his administration would continue with six-party talks but rejected direct negotiations.

President Bush: “I can remember the time when it was said that the Bush administration goes it alone too often in the world, which I always thought was a bogus claim to begin with. And now all of a sudden people are saying, the Bush administration ought to be going alone with North Korea. But it didn’t work in the past is my point. The strategy did not work. I learned a lesson from that and decided that the best way to convince Kim Jong-Il to change his mind on a nuclear weapons program is to have others send the same message.”