The warning was issued one day before Washington and Pyongyang were to hold the first high-level military talks in seven years to defuse tension on one of the world's most tense borders.

The warning also came one week after North Korea said it would push ahead with the export and deployment of missiles unless Washington lifts sanctions and agrees to terms for a permanent peace.

``The United States must ponder over the consequences to be entailed by such abnormal and illogical developments and clearly do what is has to do under the framework agreement,'' said Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Stalinist North Korea did not elaborate on the ``consequences''. ``The lifting of the US embargo on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is now being mooted in the United States,'' said the KCNA,monitored in Seoul.

``The issue, which should be resolved in accordance with the DPRK-US framework agreement, has been harassed by some unreasonable allegations which are attributable to the US dishonest policy towards the DPRK and its insincere position concerning the implementation of the agreement,'' it said. A senior US official in Washington said North Korea's threat to press ahead in developing and deploying missiles is counterproductive and could backfire by slowing any easing of US sanctions. ``This is very, very counterproductive,'' said the official, who asked not to be named. ``Such a robust statement may feel good, but it doesn't encourage anybody'' in the US government, he said.

The United States has applied a range of tough sanctions against rogue North Korea since the end of the three-year Korean War in 1953. Pyongyang has often called for their lifting, but the prospect had not appeared likely until South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung last week won a positive response to the call during asummit with US President Bill Clinton.

Following the summit meeting between Kim and Clinton, the two sides agreed to hold working-level talks next month on a possible easing of US sanctions against North Korea.