US President George W. Bush has urged North Korea to return to six-party negotiations on its nuclear programme "for the sake of peace and tranquillity".
Mr Bush was speaking at a news conference at Waco, Texas, yesterday after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned from a tour of Asia during which she said Washington could not wait forever for Pyongyang to return to the talks.
Mr Bush denied setting a June deadline for the resumption of the talks and said the five nations that have been negotiating with Pyongyang - the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia - were united in seeking North Korea's return to the negotiating table.
"I'm a patient person. And so are a lot of people that are involved in this issue. But the leader of North Korea must understand that when we five nations speak, we mean what we say," Mr Bush said.
"And for the sake of peace and tranquillity and stability in the Far East, Kim Jong-il must listen," he said.
China, which hosted three inconclusive rounds of the talks last year and exerts considerable influence on Pyongyang, also upped the pressure when North Korean Premier Pak Pong-ju met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing yesterday.
"It is in our common interests to stick to a nuclear weapon- free Korean peninsula, resolve DPRK's [North Korea's] rational concerns, and maintain peace and stability on the peninsula," Mr Hu said, according to a report from state news agency Xinhua.