U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says denuclearization is Washington's goal regardless of who is in charge of the regime in North Korea.

Speaking at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, Clinton said Wednesday that Washington is watching the North's leadership process and does “not have any idea yet how it's going to turn out.” But she did say that the most important issue is trying to get the six-party talks' members, led by China, to work with the U.S. to try to convince whoever is leading North Korea that their future would be far better served by denuclearizing.

She said the U.S. continues to send a very clear message to North Korea about what Washington and the six-party process could offer if Pyongyang is willing to seriously discuss denuclearization.