North Korea has accused the United States of increasing the danger of war on the Korean peninsula, just hours after Washington signalled a willingness to talk about their nuclear standoff.
The communist state's KCNA news agency made no mention of the US offer, nor of the UN watchdog's demand for nuclear inspectors to be readmitted within weeks.
The US administration, which had previously insisted North Korea roll back recent steps to revive its nuclear weapons plans before any talks, announced its new position late yesterday after holding talks in Washington with South Korea and Japan.
But it insisted that it would not allow North Korea's nuclear programme to become a bargaining chip. Pyongyang has threatened war in the event of US economic sanctions over the issue.
"The 'nuclear issue' that renders the situation on the Korean peninsula strained is a product of the US strategy to dominate the world whereby it is working hard to bring a holocaust of a nuclear war to the Korean nation, calling for a pre-emptive nuclear strike after deploying lots of nuclear weapons in and around South Korea," KCNA said.
Meanwhile, in further diplomatic efforts to end the crisis, a South Korean presidential envoy, Mr Yim Sung-joon, is due at the White House today and US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, who led yesterday's talks with South Korean and Japanese officials, is to visit Asia at the end of the week.