The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that the United States is dealing with North Korea issues with the same level of urgency as all the other challenges facing the country.

Department spokesperson Ned Price issued the position during a press briefing when asked whether North Korea issues have taken a back seat to China and Russia on the U.S.' list of priorities.

Price said that the U.S. does not have the luxury of being able to prioritize the challenges, stressing that all of the aforementioned issues are important.

Drawing a similarity among all three, the spokesperson said the concerns involving China, Russia and North Korea as well as Iran are fundamentally about challenges to the rules-based order in their own ways.

Price said that the U.S. and countries around the world are standing up for that rules-based order, as demonstrated in Ukraine as well as in the context of the U.S. approach to Pyongyang.