The warning came in a foreign ministry statement which made the first official government attack on the new US government of President George W. Bush.

If the United States does not change its attitude, the communist state may not keep "our promise to the previous US government in connection with our missiles," said the statement by a foreign ministry spokesman, reported by North Korean state media and monitored in Seoul.

The spokesman accused "the foreign and security team of the new US government" of taking a hardline stance toward Pyongyang. The spokesman added that situation was "extremely serious."

North Korea test launched a rocket over Japanese territory in August 1998 which caused international concern over the communist state's missile programme.

The North said it was a satellite launch test. But Japan said the rocket was a ballistic missile test.

Under international pressure North Korea first declared a moratorium on further tests in September 1999 after the United States eased its economic sanctions against the Stalinist country.

Yonhap news said the warning could also target a 1994 agreement to freeze its suspected nuclear arms programme.

Under the 1994 accord, made at a time of high tensions in relations with the West, North Korea agreed with the United States to suspend its nuclear development in return for the construction of two new light water nuclear reactors, which produce less weapons grade plutonium.

But North Korea has sought better relations with the United States since the 1994 accord struck in Geneva.

There has been a series of talks on economic relations, weapons proliferation and topics such as US soldiers missing since the 1950-53 Korean War, which has never been formally ended. The United States still has 37,000 troops in South Korea guarding against a new invasion.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright went on a historic visit to Pyongyang last November and met the North's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il.

She said Kim indicated during one mass ceremony in a Pyongyang stadium that North Korea was ready to permanently end its missile tests.

President Bill Clinton had wanted to make a trip to the North before leaving office but the United States could not close a weapons agreement.

Now the Bush administration has signalled a harder line with North Korea though it has insisted it supports the rapprochement with the communist state championed by South Korea's President Kim Dae-Jung.

The US administration has used the threat of rogue missile strikes from states like North Korea to justify its proposed National Missile Defence (NMD) shield. The system is opposed by China, Russia and some US allies.

According to South Korea's Foreign Minister Lee Joung-Binn, the US administration is stressing the need to verify changes made by North Korea before making major policy changes.

Lee met US Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security advisor Condoleeza Rice during a trip to Washington this month.

"Rice has made it clear that the United States plans to push for a North Korea policy aimed at verying all matters, while cautiously weighing the speed," the minister was quoted as telling a meeting of ruling Millennium Democratic Party members on Wednesday.

All rights reserved. � 2001 Agence France-Presse. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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