"We cannot return to the negotiating table after having been dubbed an outpost of tyranny," Yonhap news agency quoted a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman as telling Pyongyang's official media.

The spokesman urged Rice to apologize for her description of the North, according to Yonhap.

Rice arrives in Tokyo on Friday ahead of visits to Seoul and Beijing where efforts to revive the six-way talks will dominate the agenda.

During a stop-off in India, she warned North Korea it was becoming increasingly isolated and said Pyongyang's return to stalled six-party talks was the only way to end a standoff over its nuclear weapons drive.

Condoleezza Rice, on a six-nation tour of Asia, warned North Korea it was becoming increasingly isolated and said Pyongyang's return to stalled six-party talks was the only way to end a standoff over its nuclear weapons drive.

Stressing that the United States had no intention of invading North Korea, Rice called on North Korea to end its nuclear weapons programmes "verifiably and irreversibly".