US condemns N Korea's nuclear defiance

Vienna: The US is urging North Korea to talk instead of resorting to nuclear threats.

The comments by a senior US official at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency come amid a steady stream of bellicose rhetoric from the North. It is warning of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation against Washington and its allies if provoked.

The IAEA's chief US delegate, Geoffrey Pyatt, condemned the North Wednesday for abandoning six party negotiations meant to persuade it to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. And he said Washington will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state.

He urged the North to return instead to talks.