Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill says the six-way nuclear talks “remain the best mechanism” for dealing with North Korea’s nuclear issue.

Hill made the remark during a hearing organized by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in Washington on Wednesday.

He said it’s clear that the U.S. and South Korea need to "press diplomatically with others in the six party talks, especially China," to address the nuclear issue before North Korea succeeds in putting one of its “crude nuclear devices onto a crude missile system.”

Hill, who currently serves as dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, also stressed that the six-party process must continuously be pursued. He said that as supportive he is of the six-way talks, he is “not optimistic about any early breakthroughs.”