US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that North Korea should immediately return to multilateral talks on its nuclear ambitions if the communist state is serious about settling the issue.
Ms Rice is using her North Asia visit to forge a unified strategy for persuading North Korea to return to stalled six-way talks on ending its nuclear arms programme.
"Let me put it plainly: North Korea should return to the six-party talks immediately, if it is serious about exploring the path forward that we and the other parties have proposed," Ms Rice said in a policy speech at a university in Tokyo.
Ms Rice also reiterated that the United States had "no intention of attacking or invading North Korea" and said Washington was prepared to offer "multilateral security assurances to North Korea in the context of ending its nuclear programme."
Pyongyang has rejected further dialogue with her team unless she apologises first for labeling it an "outpost of tyranny".
China, which hosted three rounds of inconclusive talks by the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and itself, is urging both Washington and Pyongyang to come back to the table.