A top US envoy has arrived in Seoul for talks on the rapidly escalating nuclear crisis in North Korea.
The visit comes in the wake of a new stream of invective from North Korea, who have threatened to restart missile tests.
Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly arrived in the South Korean capital for talks with president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun and Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong.
Mr Roh, who succeeds Mr Kim Dae-Jung on February 25th, has been playing a lead role in South Korean efforts to mediate an end to the standoff but Pyongyang has so far snubbed all moves to reduce tensions.
Mr Kelly last week hosted trilateral talks on the crisis in Washington with South Korea and Japan.
After the meeting the United States offered to hold talks with North Korea, although it insisted it would not "negotiate" over its demand that Pyongyang bring itself back into line with its nuclear commitments.
But North Korea has shown few signs of ending its game of brinkmanship and announced it no longer considers itself bound by nuclear agreements.
The enigmatic regime's ambassador to China, Choe Jin-Su, said yesterdday the "moratorium about missile test fire will be no exception now that the United States has made invalid all the agreements reached between the US and DPRK (North Korea)."
Washington has warned Pyongyang that its threat to restart missile tests "would further isolate" it from the international community.
North Korea's tactics are widely seen here as a gambit by the virtually-bankrupt regime to win concessions from the US.
AFP