US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that North Korea must reach out first to South Korea before it can expect any resumption of denuclearization talks involving Washington.

Clinton met with Japan's visiting Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and jointly renewed calls on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program, a source of decades of tensions with the communist state.

"We have made consistently clear what we expect from North Korea in its actions in the future," Clinton told reporters.

"We would like to see them engaging in meaningful dialogue with the South in the first instance prior to any other steps that might be taken," she said.

North Korea, with support from China, has called for a resumption of six-nation denuclearization talks that also involve the United States, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

But President Barack Obama's administration, despite its enthusiasm for engagement around the world, has pursued a policy of "strategic patience" on North Korea, insisting it will not talk unless it believes dialogue can yield progress.

Former US president Jimmy Carter visited North Korea this week and said the communist regime was ready for peace talks with the democratic South, but the Seoul government questioned Pyongyang's sincerity.

North Korea last year shelled a civilian part of the South for the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War and was also blamed for the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship which killed 46 sailors.

The Obama administration has close ties with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, a conservative who turned the page on a decade-long "sunshine policy" of seeking to change North Korea through aid, trade and dialogue.