By Phil Stewart
SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates take their tough talk on North Korea to the demilitarised zone dividing the peninsula on Wednesday amid fears of new attacks by Pyongyang.
Clinton, whose husband Bill Clinton called the DMZ the scariest place on earth when he visited as U.S. president in 1993, said the trip was meant to show solidarity with Seoul after a March torpedo attack that sunk a South Korean warship.
"It's particularly timely to show our strong support for South Korea, a stalwart ally, and to send a very clear message to North Korea," Clinton told reporters ahead of her trip.
The United States and South Korea on Tuesday announced the start of large-scale military exercises next weekend in a show of force meant to force Pyongyang to curb its aggressive behaviour.
North Korean television late on Tuesday denounced the U.S.-South Korea naval and air exercises that begin July 25 off the Korean peninsula's east coast.
"The naval exercises threaten our territory and peace and security in our country," said a North Korean factory worker, Rim Dong-hun, who was interviewed by North Korean state TV. "It makes my blood boil."
U.S. defence and intelligence officials acknowledge options are limited in dealing with North Korea. The pariah state denies any responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan warship in March. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed.
The retired general that President Barack Obama nominated to be his new spy chief told the U.S. Congress on Tuesday he feared the sinking of the Cheonan may herald a "dangerous new period" of direct attacks on the South.
"Coupled with this is a renewed realisation that North Korea's military forces still pose a threat that cannot be taken lightly," James Clapper, who currently serves as U.S. undersecretary of defence for intelligence, said in a written response to questions at his Senate confirmation hearing.
Clinton and Gates are expected to arrive in the morning at the DMZ, where they may be able to eyeball communist troops at the planet's last Cold War flashpoint.
Gates, speaking to reporters at a U.S. military base just south of the demilitarised zone on Tuesday, said the trip was "a useful reminder that we are in an armistice and that this is a volatile region, as we saw with the Cheonan."
The armistice signed in 1953 halted fighting between U.S.-led U.N. forces backing South Korea and Communist Chinese and North Korean troops. But the truce has never been converted into a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas in a technical state of war.
North Korea has recently signalled it wants a return to talks with regional powers on its nuclear weapons programme.
Analysts say Washington and Seoul are reluctant to head back into the nuclear talks, which the ostracised North has previously used to extract benefits from the international community while still pressing ahead with efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal.
But they may have little choice with Washington nervous about North Korea's potential to export atomic weapons.
(Additional reporting by Brett Cole; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
