A senior U.S. official said on Thursday the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is unlikely to abandon its nuclear arms this year.

"It is increasingly clear that North Korea will remain in its present nuclear status when the (Bush) administration leaves office in one year," Jay Lefkowitz, President George W. Bush's envoy on the DPRK human rights issues, told a forum sponsored by the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

"North Korea is not serious about disarming in a timely manner, " Lefkowitz said.

However, Christopher Hill, top U.S. envoy to the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula, has said he hopes to use a DPRK declaration of all its nuclear programs as a roadmap for dismantling its atomic programs by the end of 2008.

Under an agreement reached in October 2007 at the six party talks, the DPRK agreed to disable its key nuclear facilities at the Yongbyon complex, and to declare all other nuclear programs by the end of the year.

The DPRK has denied that it had missed the deadline to submit that declaration, saying "other participating nations delay the fulfillment of their commitments, the DPRK is compelled to adjust the tempo of the disablement of some nuclear facilities on the principle of 'action for action'."