North Korea’s production of nuclear weapons and China’s treatment of North Korean refugees were among the top issues discussed by U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao during their talks in Washington Thursday.

Bush asked China to use its influence to persuade North Korea to become less reclusive and to return to the stalled six-party talks seeking a peaceful resolution to the nuclear weapons issue on the Korean Peninsula.

In a press briefing after the meeting, Dennis Wilder, acting director for Asian affairs of the National Security Council, said China was a model for what North Korea could become in Asia.

``We asked the Chinese to continue to work on the North Koreans,’’ Wilder said. ``They need to give up their nuclear ambitions. They need to open up in the way that China has opened itself up since the 1970s.’’

Wilder said Hu agreed that North Korea should give up its nuclear ambitions and that China would continue to work toward that end. Hu said Kim Jong-il’s recent visit to China was a chance to demonstrate the benefits of an open, changing society, Wilder said.

Hu mentioned that the economic steps taken by the United States against a bank in Macau were an impediment for North Korea returning to the talks, Wilder said.

``But he didn’t say ‘you need to end those measures’ in any way, shape or form,’’ Wilder said.

In September, the U.S. Treasury Department designated a Macau bank a primary money-laundering partner that was aiding North Korean efforts to counterfeit American bills. North Korea has insisted that the United States lift this designation before it will return to the six-party talks.

Bush also used the summit to bring attention to the case of a 31-year-old North Korean refugee who attempted to flee North Korea through China and was returned to North Korea by the Chinese government.

Kim Chun-hee sought refuge at a Korean school in China last November in the hope that she would be able to join family members in South Korea. Under the edicts of a U.N. charter China signed, the woman should have been allowed to proceed to South Korea, Wilder said.

``This was an individual, you will remember, that had family in South Korea (and) would have been easily resettled,’’ he said. ``So we were confused by the Chinese decision here.’’

Bush asked China to put a process in place for handling people who come across the border that comply with U.N. standards and that both the United States and China would be comfortable with.

``The way the Chinese dealt with that particular case was non-transparent,’’ Wilder said.

Hu listened but did not respond to the issue of North Korean refugees, Wilder said.

The two leaders also discussed ways to use their international influence to stop nuclear proliferation in Iran and genocide in Darfur.

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