US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry yesterday urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to return to the Six-Party Talks, saying what the country had done in the past week to escalate tensions was "reckless and counterproductive".

Kerry's remarks, made at a press briefing in Beijing at the end of a week-long visit, came as Republic of Korea (ROK) and US troops raised alert levels to the highest category since 2006, after the DPRK renounced on Wednesday a truce with the allied forces and threatened to strike ships trying to intercept its vessels.

Analysts saw the latest moves as a sign of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, following the DPRK's second underground nuclear test and its firing of a series of short-range missiles earlier this week.