North Korea invited US envoy Christopher Hill to Pyongyang in an apparent bid to renew stalled talks over its nuclear weapons programme. But it also threatened to take the "strongest" but unspecified measure if Washington maintained a "hostile policy" towards the Stalinist state.
It said Hill, a US assistant secretary of state, would be welcome in Pyongyang if Washington sincerely wanted to uphold a joint statement agreed last September at six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
"If the United States has sincerely made a political decision to implement the joint statement, we again invite the US chief delegate to six-way talks to visit Pyongyang and explain it directly to us," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korea, meeting with six-party delegates from China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, agreed to dismantle its nuclear programme in September in return for aid and diplomatic concessions.
But in November it launched a boycott of the talks after Washington imposed sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang's alleged illicit financial activities, including money laundering.
In the KCNA report, monitored in South Korea by Yonhap news agency, Pyongyang threatened retaliation if Washington stepped up pressure against the communist regime.
"If the United States keeps a hostile policy and steps up pressure on us we have no other choice but to take our strongest measure to defend our sovereignty and the rights for our own survival."
Pyongyang said last year that it had nuclear weapons. Recent reports that North Korea could be preparing to test fire a ballistic missile have triggered unease in South Korea and Japan.
North Korea invited Hill to Pyongyang for unconditional talks last September but nothing came of the approach to the US envoy who has in the past said he was prepared to go to the communist country.
Since then the six-party peace process has stalled and North Korea has been preoccupied by US financial restrictions including a ban on a Macau bank which the US accused of assisting Pyongyang's in money-laundering.
North Korea has said it will stay away from further talks until Washington lift that ban which has blocked some 24 million dollars in North Korean funds, according to the US government.
The foreign ministry spokesman accused Washington of stealing the money.
"We will surely get back the money stolen by the United States," he was quoted as saying.
Hill was in Beijing and Seoul last week for talks on the nuclear standoff, during which he stressed that Washington was not prepared to make concessions to bring Pyongyang back to talks.
