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A top U.S. intelligence official endorsed sanctions against North Korea, saying Tuesday they serve as leverage and helped persuade Pyongyang's leaders to reconsider their nuclear gambit.

John Negroponte, nominated as deputy secretary of state, did not rule out the possibility of the U.S. chief nuclear negotiator going to North Korea, depending on diplomatic developments.

Testifying at his nomination hearing, Negroponte said the main focus for North Korea is to get the country to commit to freezing its nuclear program and subjecting it to international inspections.

"I wouldn't want to raise false hopes here," Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "But I do think there's some grounds for optimism that we can move that issue forward."

Now the national intelligence director, Negroponte is expected to take over the Asia portfolio when he moves to the State Department.

Six nations -- South and North Korea, the U.S. China, Russia and Japan -- have come together to work out a denuclearization process by which Pyongyang would give up its atomic weapons and programs.

Other members, in turn, would provide various incentives to help bring the isolated Pyongyang regime into international diplomatic and financial systems.

The six-party talks were jeopardized when the U.S. Treasury designated Macau's Banco Delta Asia as a primary money laundering concern abetting North Korea's illicit activities. North Korea has since insisted that the sanctions be lifted before discussing denuclearization.

But Negroponte said the sanctions serve a purpose.

While some might argue that they are disruptive, he said, "I think others might make the case, perhaps even equally or more plausibly, that those kinds of sanctions can provide a bit of leverage in these discussions."

The sanctions, including those by the United Nations following an Oct. 9 nuclear test by Pyongyang, most likely prompted the North to change its thinking, he said.

"The fact that the Security Council adopted a unanimous resolution, which placed North Korea for the first time at odds with their traditional friend China, must have given them pause about the situation that they have created for themselves," the nominee said.

A visit to North Korea by Christopher Hill, chief U.S. delegate to the six-party talks, would require a tactical decision, taking into consideration the diplomatic developments at that particular time, he said.

"I certainly wouldn't rule it out," he said.

North Korea had invited Hill to Pyongyang in the past, but its refusal to freeze its nuclear activities during his visit there had thwarted the plans.

Washington, Jan. 30 (Yonhap News)