SEOUL -- South Korea and the United States on Wednesday agreed to put North Korea's suspected nuclear program high on the agenda when the two countries hold defense ministers' talks in December.

The agreement was reached when South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jun met with U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, a senior official of the South Korean Defense Ministry said.

Lee and Feith agreed that the two sides hold their annual security consultative meeting in Washington on December 5, bringing together Lee and his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld along with top military brass from both countries, AFP reported.

"The two sides reaffirmed that the North's nuclear development program must not be condoned and that the issue must be resolved in a swift and verifiable manner," said Cha Young-koo, director general of the ministry's policy planning bureau.

Feith indirectly urged South Korea to raise the issue with the North at inter-Korean talks, Cha said.

Feith also met with South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong and visited the 'demilitarized zone' that has divided the Korean Peninsula for nearly half a century.

The United States said North Korea had admitted during a visit to Pyongyang by U.S. special envoy James Kelly last month to running nuclear weapons program despite a 1994 deal freezing its nuclear ambitions.

North Korea has since rejected the U.S. claims as "groundless". It said North Korea's first Deputy Foreign Minister, Kang Sok-ju, told Kelly that the North has the right to possess not only nuclear, but even more deadlier weapons in the face of U.S. nuclear threats.

Pyongyang has offered to resolve U.S. concerns over nuclear weapons in return for a non-aggression pact.

But the United States rejected the offer, demanding the North end its nuclear weapons development before talks could begin.

Feith will leave for Tokyo Thursday for meetings with senior Japanese officials.