US offers are pie in the sky, says North Korea
At the same time, the top US envoy for Asia said in Beijing the whole international community agreed that the Korean peninsula must be free of nuclear weapons but held out little hope of a speedy outcome.
"It's going to be a slow process to make sure we achieve this in the right way," US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly told reporters after talks with Chinese leaders.
Kelly spoke hours after Pyongyang scornfully dismissed as pie in the sky US offers of possible food and energy aid if the impoverished North would halt its nuclear programme.
In Seoul, South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jun told parliament war is unavoidable if diplomacy failed.
"If the North Korean nuclear problem cannot be solved peacefully and America attacks North Korea, war on the Korean peninsula will be unavoidable," he said. "Our army is prepared for the worst-case scenario."
Despite Pyongyang's hard-line public declarations, however, Japan's foreign minister and South Korea's president-elect said they saw signs it wanted talks to end the crisis.
Kelly, flitting between Asian capitals to drum up support for Washington's stance on North Korea, said he had held very good talks with officials from China one of Pyongyang's few allies.
"We have to talk more and communicate with other people, including North Korea, very, very clearly, so we all agree on the end results," he said.
Kelly left China for Singapore as Russia's chief Asia expert, Alexander Losyukov, prepared to fly to Beijing and then to Pyongyang where he was to discuss Moscow's proposals for ending the crisis.
An Australian diplomatic delegation has been in the North Korean capital this week too, seeking to find a way out of the impasse.
But a visiting British Foreign Office minister said in Hong Kong he believed Pyongyang wanted to deal exclusively with Washington.
North Korea threw out UN inspectors last month and last week pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and threatened to resume missile tests.
