US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told North Korea to stop being provocative and return to nuclear talks, warning ties cannot improve with Washington if it continues insulting South Korea.
Mrs Clinton repeated the new US administration's offer of diplomatic relations, massive aid and a peace treaty if Pyongyang gives up efforts to build an atomic arsenal.
'The most immediate issue is to continue the disablement of their nuclear facilities and to get a complete and verifiable agreement as to the end of their nuclear programme,' she told a news conference.
Talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US on the North's nuclear ambitions have all but ground to a halt, most recently stuck on Pyongyang's refusal to allow nuclear material to be taken abroad for tests.
Mrs Clinton made clear the North also needed to tone down its increasingly furious rhetoric, which this week alone has included a threat of war with the South and an accusation the US plans a nuclear strike against it.
North Korea is also thought to be preparing the launch of a missile with the potential to reach US territory.
'North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the US while insulting and refusing dialogue with (South Korea),' Mrs Clinton said in Seoul, the third stop of her Asia tour.
She called the sabre-rattling provocative and unhelpful, praising the South Korean government for its restraint.
North Korea, which is facing another serious food shortage, has turned on the conservative government in the South, which has ended years of free-flowing aid over the nuclear impasse.
'(South) Korea's achievement of democracy and prosperity stands in stark contrast to the tyranny and poverty across the border to the North,' Mrs Clinton said.
