13 seconds ago 2009-12-10T09:40:03-08:00
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Friday urged North Korea to abandon its "bellicose rhetoric" in the wake of a naval clash with South Korea just days before President Barack Obama's ongoing trip to Asia.
"We would (urge North Korea) to refrain... from that kind of bellicose rhetoric and, in general, avoid any kind of provocative actions that would further inflame the tension in the region," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
Pyongyang's army earlier said in a message to the South's forces that it would employ "merciless military measures" to protect its border.
A scrappy naval confrontation on Tuesday, shortly before Obama's visit to Seoul next week, appeared to raise the possibility of an larger military standoff on the already tense peninsula.
Earlier this week a senior US official said special envoy Stephen Bosworth would "quite likely" meet with North Korean diplomats next month.
North Korea had invited Bosworth to visit for talks to end what it calls Washington's "hostile" policy toward the communist state.
Washington has said it is willing to sit down with Pyongyang but only if such a meeting is considered as part of the six-nation talks that led to the 2005 and 2007 agreements for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
North Korea has unleashed a string of actions this year that infuriated the Obama administration, including testing a nuclear bomb and test-firing a missile over Japan, a close Washington ally where Obama began his Asia visit on Friday.
