BANGKOK, Thailand – America has not set itself a deadline to decide whether to bring the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program to the United Nations, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said yesterday.

Mr. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Rice worked to minimize the impact of statements by a senior defense official, traveling with Mr. Rumsfeld, who had said earlier that a decision on taking North Korea to the United Nations could come within several weeks.

“There have been no decisions with respect to that at all,” Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters after touring the Grand Palace in the Thai capital.

There had seemed to be a policy rift in the Bush administration over the weekend when Ms. Rice, speaking to reporters while traveling Sunday to a meeting of the Organization of American States, said, “I think the idea that within weeks we’re going to decide one way or another is a little forward-leaning, I would say. You know, I don’t put timelines on things, and I think the president, he doesn’t put timelines on issues.”

Nearly a year has passed since North Korea has participated in six-nation talks aimed at eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. Since then, North Korea has formally declared it has nuclear weapons, claiming it needs a nuclear deterrent because of a “hostile policy” from America.

President Bush and other American officials have repeatedly said they have no intention of attacking North Korea. Washington officials estimate North Korea has about a half-dozen nuclear bombs.

At an Asian security conference in Singapore Saturday, both American and Japanese officials floated the idea of bringing North Korea before the world body. During a question-and-answer session, Mr. Rumsfeld said the world is threatened by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and therefore must consider what to do about the problem.

“It would require, certainly, the United Nations to ask itself, does it want to have a role in trying to avoid allowing the kind of proliferation that is threatened,” Mr. Rumsfeld said.

A senior defense official in Mr. Rumsfeld’s party went further Sunday, saying America was reconsidering its North Korea policy and Bush administration officials were studying whether to take the matter to the United Nations soon.

The official – a senior northeast Asia expert who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue – said the Bush administration hoped to have a decision made by late June or July. The Bush administration is frustrated, the official said, by North Korea’s refusal to return to the bargaining table and what he called “a downward spiral of threats” from Pyongyang.

The official’s comments generated a flurry of news media coverage in Asia. North Korea has said it would consider U.N. economic sanctions an act of war, although whether it would retaliate militarily to sanctions is unknown.

The issue also is sensitive because South Korea has resisted the idea of bringing North Korea before the U.N. Security Council for discussion of economic sanctions or other measures.

The White House press secretary Scott McClellan, talking to reporters yesterday, said “there is a New York channel that they can communicate with us if they need to. I’m not aware of any response from North Korea at this point.

“We are hopeful that North Korea will be responding soon,” he said. “We continue to urge North Korea to return to the six-party talks at an early date without preconditions.”

Mr. McClellan said “there recently were discussions through that channel where we reiterated our message that we want North Korea to come back to the six-party talks.”