WASHINGTON, May 3: US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has warned North Korea that the United States can defend itself and its allies against any nuclear or missile threat. Talking with reporters in Washington after meeting French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, Ms Rice said: “The United States maintains significant, I want to underline significant, deterrent capability of all kinds in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Although the United States no longer stores nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, it has long-range missiles and other weapons within striking distance of North Korea.

The US Air Force rotates heavy bombers, including Stealth B-2s, onto its base on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific. It maintains F-15E and other fighter jets in Japan and South Korea.

An American aircraft carrier is based off Japan, and the Navy has made it clear that it can move more vessels into the region on short notice.

Her warning follows a statement on Thursday by Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency, that North Korea was able to strike American territory with a nuclear-tipped missile.

Also on Sunday, North Korea launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan. But officials in Japan and South Korea, the two countries that could be directly affected by North Korean missiles, played down Pyongyang’s missile test, saying it appeared to be a short-range weapon unable to carry a nuclear warhead. But they acknowledged that it would strain efforts to resume six-nation talks on ending the North’s nuclear programme.

Ms Rice, however, said that the North Korean missile threat was still “a serious problem” and reminded Pyongyang that they should have no doubt about “our ability to deter whatever the North Koreans are up to”.

She suggested North Korea’s missile programme should be on the agenda whenever the six-party talks resume concerning Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.