ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN)  -- A gaggle of reporters pushed their microphones and cameras toward the North Korean official shortly after he arrived at a college campus here.





North Korean diplomat Kim Myong-gil gathered with other officials to discuss North Korea's energy needs





But Kim Myong-gil's comments were off the record -- a sign of the sensitive nature of openly discussing concerns about North Korea's nuclear program. The U.S. State Department's director of Korean affairs, Kurt Tong, also agreed to participate in Thursday's conference as long as his statements were not published.





Tong and Kim, a North Korea representative at the United Nations, gathered with others including former diplomats and academics at the Georgia Institute of Technology to discuss North Korea's energy needs and the status of the six-party talks on its nuclear program.





Although the two top-level diplomats kept their remarks private, other participants in the conference at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs aired their opinions openly.





Much of the Korea conference focused on the scientific details of North Korea's infrastructure and how it could be improved to handle sources of energy other than nuclear, such as an oil pipeline or utilizing its significant mineral resources.





But all those ideas will never be realized without a change in relations between North Korea, its neighbors and the United States, and that is why diplomacy was also part of the discussion.





Thursday's conference coincided with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement that her new envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, will travel to Russia, China, South Korea and Japan next week "to consult on the next steps to move the six-party process forward."





Senior administration officials said Bosworth is considering heading to Pyongyang on that visit, but only if the leaders of the other parties involved in the talks are comfortable with that overture.





Speaking at a joint news conference with Clinton, Bosworth said there is no doubt the United States plans "to engage with North Korea."





"The question as to whether we're going to engage with them on this particular trip remains to be decided," he said. "That will depend upon our consultations in the region, and it will depend upon what we hear back from the North Koreans."





Thursday's conference also coincided with reports that North Korea is apparently preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, under the guise of launching a satellite into space.





Leon Sigal, a specialist on North Korea who used to work for the State Department, stressed that President Obama is at a "starting point" with North Korea. Mindful that the new U.S. leader is preoccupied with his country's economic recession, Sigal said Obama must act swiftly and decisively with regards to North Korea to avoid the mistakes of the previous administration.





"The only way to fix this problem is to negotiate," said Sigal, who is currently director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York.





Part of Sigal's proposal includes helping North Korea construct conventional power plants as it moves toward denuclearization. He outlined two "troubling questions" facing the Obama administration: how to avoid having to constantly react under pressure to North Korea's provocations, and how the scenario could change, possibly for the worse, if there is a change in leadership, "now that Kim Jong-Il's health is at issue."





"It seems to me the answer to both is for Washington to put a bigger deal on the negotiating table now," Sigal proposed.





That drew a couple of comments and questions from the audience. One graduate student asked why the United States should "put more oil in a leaky bucket," referring to the idea of sending more fuel oil shipments to North Korea when the previous shipments -- part of an agreement to get Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear facility -- have done little to deter the country from abandoning its nuclear program.





North Korea maintains that it is due the oil shipments because it fulfilled its obligation to disable its Yongbyon nuclear complex. The United States has demanded Pyongyang
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