WSHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called nuclear-armed, Stalinist North Korea a "dangerous regime" and defended financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities.

"In terms of danger, of course you know they are a dangerous regime but we should also not misinterpret the security situation on the Korean peninsula, where there is a significant deterrent towards North Korean activity there," she told reporters.

"Their illegal activities have drawn sanctions from us because the President (George W. Bush) is not going to let North Korea count American money without action," she said.

Rice"s remarks further cloud the prospect of any resumption of six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea"s nuclear weapons drive.

The talks are in a limbo following the imposition of sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

In September the US Treasury Department told US financial institutions to cut all ties with a Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia, which it accused of being a willing front for North Korean counterfeiting.

A month later the US blacklisted eight North Korean companies allegedly involved in the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea said Washington must lift the sanctions for any resumption of the nuclear talks, among the United States, the two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan.

Pyongyang said the sanctions breached the spirit of a September pact secured at the Beijing-hosted talks, in which North Korea agreed in principle to disband its nuclear weapons program in return for economic and diplomatic benefits.

But Rice said that the US sanctions were justified, noting the absence of protests from the international community.

"There hasn"t been much uproar from anybody else about the fact that we are engaged in trying to constrain these illicit activities," she said.

The nuclear standoff ignited in 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of running a secret uranium-enrichment program.

The North responded by throwing out UN International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.