TOKYO (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Japanese leaders Tuesday that North Korea's nuclear ambitions are "disruptive" and any missile launch by Pyongyang would be unhelpful or even provocative. Reassuring her hosts that the US-Japanese alliance remained the cornerstone of regional security, Hillary also handed Prime Minister Taro Aso an invitation to visit the White House next week - before other foreign leaders. Aso accepted, officials said. On the first full day of her Asian tour, she said the US would press North Korea to come clean on its weapons-grade nuclear programme and on abducted Japanese citizens. "Let me underscore the commitment the United States has to the denuclearisation of North Korea and to the prevention of further proliferation," she told a news conference with Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone. Under a 2007 deal with the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, North Korea agreed to end its nuclear programmes in exchange for energy aid. A senior State Department official, summarising Clinton's meeting with Nakasone, said, "The North's nuclear ambitions are disruptive to peace and there's a full commitment to the alliance under President (Barack) Obama." The US official, who asked not to be named, said Hillary told her Japanese counterpart that a missile launch would be "provocative" under certain circumstances. Nakasone replied that the allies needed to respond "strictly" to intimidation from the North, the US official said. In her Press conference with Nakasone, the top US diplomat renewed her earlier offer of normal relations and a full peace treaty if North Korea "verifiably and completely eliminates its nuclear programme". Hillary also said President Barack Obama would meet Prime Minister Aso in Washington on February 24. Aso told Hillary, according to Jiji Press, that "the two countries have a big responsibility over the international economy and global finance. I would like to discuss that." Earlier, Hillary vowed to push for more "balance and harmony" in conducting US foreign policy, after visiting a Japanese shrine on the first full day of her Asian tour. Alluding to the preceding Bush administration's stress on military power, she told a gathering at the US Embassy in Tokyo that the Obama Administration sought to balance defence, diplomacy and development. She has called for a subtle blend of "smart power" as US forces are embroiled in Afghanistan and Iraq and facing perceived nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea - not to mention climate change and an economic crisis. "We do talk about the three d's. Defence, diplomacy, development," said Hillary. "We happen to think they go together. If one gets out of proportion to the others, our policies and our role in the world gets a little out of balance," the secretary of state said.