The United States on Nov. 1 urged North Korea to refrain from provocations during the summit meeting of the group of 20 leading economies in Seoul next week.
"We are interested in seeing North Korea cease all provocative actions of all kinds for any point going forward," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "Let's not limit it to the G-20."
Crowley was responding to the report that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo on the island of Hainan over the past weekend that China pressure North Korea not to take provocative actions during next week's G-20 gathering.
"We do have ongoing concerns about North Korean provocations, and we have discussed this with China and encouraged China to have appropriate conversations with North Korea," Crowley said. "It would not surprise me that when we talk to China about North Korea, we tend to mention our concerns about North Korean provocations."
U.S. President Barack Obama will attend the G-20 summit in Seoul Nov. 11-12. Obama embarks on Nov. 11 on a 10-day trip that will also bring him to India, Indonesia and Japan.
While in Seoul, Obama will have a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to discuss North Korea's nuclear dismantlement as well as the ratification of a bilateral free trade deal, pending for more than three years over an imbalance in auto trade and limited shipments of beef, White House officials said.
Obama will also have a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Seoul on the sidelines of the G-20 economic summit to discuss the resumption of the six-party talks on the North's denuclearization, as well as the yuan's revaluation, sanctions on Iran and other issues, they said.
The nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been stalled over the sinking of a South Korean warship by North Korea.
South Korea and the U.S. want the North to apologize for the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors in the Yellow Sea in March, as a condition to the reopening of the nuclear talks. Pyongyang denies any responsibility.
South Korea is the first non-G-7 member advanced economy to host the G-20 economic summit since the outbreak of the economic crisis triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis on Wall Street in late 2008.
U.S. President George W. Bush convened the first G-20 summit in November 2008 to seek support from South Korea, China, India and other major developing economies to address the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The second and third G-20 summits were held in London and Pittsburgh last year and the fourth in Toronto in June.