Washington ? President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun pressed North Korea to rejoin deadlocked talks on its nuclear weapons program Friday and tried to minimize their own differences over how hard to push the reclusive communist regime.

“South Korea and the United States share the same goal, and that is a Korean peninsula without a nuclear weapon,” Bush said with Roh at the Oval Office.

Roh, whose government has resisted the tougher approach advocated by the Bush administration toward ending the impasse, said he agreed that six-nation talks remained the best way to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

While Bush emphasized that the two allies “are of one voice” on the issue, Roh, who is presiding over a South Korea newly assertive about its role in the region, raised the issue of remaining differences.

“There are, admittedly, many people who worry about potential discord or cacophony between the two powers of the alliance,” he said.

Roh opposes military action if diplomacy with North Korea fails. South Korea also is cool to the idea of taking the North Korean standoff to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. South Korea instead is pursuing a policy of engagement with the communist North and supports a security guarantee or economic incentives to entice North Korea to return to six-nation talks it has boycotted for nearly a year.

Bush, however, wants South Korea – as well as China – to take a more aggressive stance. The president said Friday he had no new inducements for North Korea beyond those offered last June.