North Korea yesterday condemned imminent US-South Korea naval exercises as a threat to global peace as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Vietnam for Asia-Pacific security talks.

A spokesman for the North Korean delegation at the talks in Hanoi also dismissed fresh US sanctions against the isolated regime for its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, saying they violated a UN statement.

"Such movements pose a great threat not only to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula but also to global peace and security," the spokesman, Ri Tong Il, told reporters.

"If the US is truly interested in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula it must take the lead in creating an atmosphere (for dialogue) rather than... staging military exercises or imposing sanctions."

The nuclear-armed North has warned of war if it is punished over the sinking of the Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March with the loss of 46 lives, an incident that has sharply raised tensions on the peninsula.

The US says its naval exercises starting on Sunday and involving an aircraft carrier, destroyers and thousands of troops are meant as a "deterrence" against North Korean "aggression".

Mrs Clinton said the sanctions were designed to pile pressure on the Pyongyang leadership and were not aimed at the North Korean people, "who have suffered too long due to the misguided and malign priorities of their government".

State Department officials said Mrs Clinton would ask Beijing to do more to wring change from its ally North Korea during bilateral talks with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Hanoi.