Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. won't give in to North Korea's "unpredictable behavior" after Kim Jong Il's regime said it quit nuclear disarmament talks.

The U.S. has made it clear it is prepared to resume the negotiations, also involving China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington yesterday.

"The North Koreans have not demonstrated any willingness to resume the six-party process," Clinton said. "I think we have to be strong, patient, persistent and not give in to the kind of back-and-forth, the unpredictable behavior of the North Korean regime."

North Korea vowed to permanently quit the six-party talks last week after the United Nations condemned its April 5 test of a suspected ballistic missile. The communist state said it would resume reprocessing spent atomic fuel at its Yongbyon plant, the source of its weapons-grade plutonium, and consider building new reactors. Kim's government also expelled inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.

By Heejin Koo, Bloomberg, April 23, 2009