US Secretary of State Colin Powell conferred last night with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on steps the two countries can take to encourage North Korea to curb its nuclear ambitions.

WITH mounting fears of a nuclear-armed North Korea, a US envoy arrived in Seoul yesterday to try to defuse the crisis amid warnings from Russia that too much pressure on the communist state could backfire.

North Korea denied today that it ever admitted that it had a secret nuclear weapons programme and said it would unleash a “sea of fire” if the United States persists in challenging the communist country.