The U.S. says it will not reward North Korea for bad behavior amid reports that the North has built a new uranium enrichment facility.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters Monday that the building of such a facility is obviously an issue of concern but not a crisis, adding that the North’s recent move doesn't surprise Washington and may be nothing more than a “publicity stunt.”

Crowley then urged the North to take complete, verifiable and irreversible steps toward denuclearization, also making clear that Washington will maintain its existing policies toward the communist state.