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The U.S. decision to disclose the North Korea-Syria nuclear connection last week was intended to press Pyongyang to come clean on its atomic weapons programs, President George W. Bush said Tuesday.

The U.S. wanted to "advance certain policy objectives," Bush said at a White House press conference.

One of the objectives was to put North Korea on notice, "to make it abundantly clear that we may know more about you than you think," he said.

The White House, breaking nearly eight months of silence, announced last week the U.S. intelligence assessment that North Korea helped build an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor. Israel, after destroying the building in an air raid in September, claimed that North Koreans were involved in Syria's covert project.

The Bush administration at the time refused to confirm any details of the incident, and briefed only a handful of legislators before going to full congressional committees with video tapes and photographs linking Pyongyang with Damascus.

The Syria link, however, surfaced as South and North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan were engaged in talks to negotiate an eventual nuclear dismantlement of Pyongyang. U.S. confirmation of North Korea's atomic cooperation with Syria has flared criticisms that Washington should not trust the communist regime and exert more pressure.

In addition to a plutonium-based weapons program, North Korea is also suspected of having tried to enrich uranium to make atomic arms.

Bush said the message to Pyongyang is that it's essential that it has a "complete disclosure on not only your plutonium activities, but proliferation as well as... enrichment activities."

A senior South Korean official, wrapping up his U.S. visit on Tuesday, emphasized that the six-party process will continue despite the latest fallout from the Syria issue.

"I am cautious, but I am optimistic," this official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity."

"The will to complete this phase and enter the next phase is strong not only in the U.S.," he said. "The will is unusually strong in North Korea as well." Once North Korea submits its declaration to China, the host of the six-party talks, other members will review it before convening a full meeting, the official said.

"At this point, I would say the next six-party meeting is likely toward the end of May."

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Yonhap)