In an abrupt departure from its strident attacks of recent months, North Korea toned down its rhetoric tonight over the nuclear crisis and stressed its goal of reforming its struggling economy.
North Korea also denied it was resorting to brinkmanship tactics and using the nuclear standoff as a means of seeking concessions in negotiations with Washington.
"There is no need for us to threaten somebody in order to get something or to have our system guaranteed by somebody," a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement through North Korea's state media.
The statement followed a warning by White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer that Washington would not bow to nuclear blackmail from the famine-hit Stalinist state.
Washington is demanding that North Korea scrap its nuclear weapons ambitions before it will agree to negotiate with Pyongyang, which insists on a non-aggression pact and direct talks first.
The North's spokesman accused Washington of hampering Pyongyang's efforts to enhance economic cooperation with neighboring countries and reactivate the country's bankrupt economy.
"We are now taking bold measures to improve the overall economic management system with a view to reenergizing the economy to suit the changed actual conditions in the new century."
The statement followed North Korea's aggressive warning yesterday that it was ready to pull out of the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and has helped keep the peace for half a century on the Korean peninsula.
That warning was firmly dismissed by the United States.
"What you've seen is a rather predictable series of escalatory statements from North Korea," Mr Fleischer said.
"I think you always have to react somewhat judiciously to the statements that North Korea makes. There is a lengthy history of bravado to some of their statements."
Mr Fleischer announced today that Secretary of State Colin Powell would visit Japan, China and South Korea this weekend to address the crisis.
AFP