``We are not contemplating attacking North Korea. What we are contemplating is to see to it that the integrity of the agreed framework is maintained,'' Cohen told a group of Japanese media persons here.

Cohen's remarks, which followed security talks with Japanese leaders, appeared intended to dispel rising speculation that any collapse of the agreed framework could lead to a military confrontation on the Korean peninsula.

There was no Washington-imposed deadline for resolving the issue over whether the site at Kumchangri, North Korea, was being built to circumvent the 1994 agreed framework, which froze Pyongyang's nuclear programme, Cohen stressed.