US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) needs to declare all its nuclear activities.

"We await a complete and accurate declaration from North Korea on all of its nuclear activities," Rice said during a speech at a women's forum in Washington.

"And that's extremely important, because that becomes, then, the launching pad for the next step toward dismantlement of those activities, programs and facilities and the beginning of the true denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Rice said.

US President George W. Bush made the same appeal in his letter to DPRK leader Kim Jong-Il last week, as the United States insists that the DPRK has not so far explained the status of its nuclear program to US satisfaction.

In addition to Kim Jong-Il, Bush also wrote to the four other parties in the six-party nuclear talks, urging Pyongyang to fully disclose its atomic activities. This was the first time for Bush to directly communicate with the DPRK since he took office.

It is widely regarded that the letter marked an apparent shift of attitude by Bush toward the DPRK, a country once he branded as one of the "axis of evil."

The six-party talks held in Beijing in February reached a nuclear deal, in which the DPRK agreed to disable its nuclear reactor and declare all nuclear programs and facilities by the end of this year to pave the way for dismantlement next year.