US offers N Korea ties prospect

Hillary Clinton is heading to Asia next week on her first foreign tour

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered North Korea diplomatic ties and aid if it lives up to its pledge to give up its nuclear programme.

In her first big foreign policy speech, Mrs Clinton urged North Korea not to take any "provocative action" that would undermine talks on the issue.

She spoke ahead of a week-long tour of Asia that will take in Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

Climate change and the financial crisis are likely also to be on the agenda.

Speaking at New York's Asia Society, Mrs Clinton also stressed that the US was keen to work in cooperation with China.

And she assured Japan that she would talk to the families of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, a major concern for Tokyo.

Stalled talks

Mrs Clinton's trip to Asia comes amid speculation in regional media outlets that North Korea may be preparing for a long-range missile test.

Mrs Clinton described the country's nuclear programme as "the most acute challenge to stability in north-east Asia" and said the nations involved in six-party talks on the issue would need to work together to make progress.

She made clear that the US would hold Pyongyang to its commitment to give up its nuclear programme in return for diplomatic concessions and economic aid.

"If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons programme, the Obama administration will be willing to normalise bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's long-standing armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty, and assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people," she said.

The six-party talks, involving the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, as well as North Korea, have been stalled for months.

The US has concerns about how to verify Pyongyang's past nuclear activities and wants North Korea to disclose its full nuclear arsenal. Pyongyang, meanwhile, says it is not receiving the aid promised in the 2007 aid-for-disarmament deal.