US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed scepticism Thursday about the outcome of his country's talks with North Korea, days after a second round of discussions was held in Geneva.

The talks on Monday and Tuesday, following up a meeting in New York in July, were intended to pave the way for the resumption of six-nation negotiations on the North's nuclear disarmament.

Panetta said there were indications some progress was made but no agreement was reached and it was unclear where the talks were headed.

"The word scepticism would be in order at this time as to what may or may not happen in those discussions," he told reporters during a visit to South Korea.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said earlier Thursday the Geneva discussions made some progress but no breakthrough.

"There is a substantial amount of work that needs to be done. No decisions have been taken about next steps," Campbell told journalists during a stopover in Seoul.

"We clearly stated our position on pre-steps," he said, without elaborating.

The North quit the six-party nuclear talks in April 2009, a month before staging its second atomic weapons test.

It has since repeatedly said it wants to come back without preconditions to the negotiations, which group the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.

Washington and its allies say Pyongyang must first take steps to show its sincerity, such as shutting down a uranium enrichment plant that could be converted to make nuclear weapons.

North Korea said Thursday the Geneva talks made progress and the two sides would hold further meetings.

"Both sides decided to further... contacts and talks to discuss and solve the pending issues in the light of building confidence," a foreign ministry spokesman told Pyongyang's official news agency.

However, the spokesman reiterated that the full six-nation nuclear negotiations should restart without any preconditions.

Panetta said China, the North's closest ally and economic partner, could do more to persuade it to resume negotiations and scrap its nuclear capabilities.

"There are moments when we think they're urging North Korea to engage but frankly I think China can do more to try to get North Korea to do the right thing," he told reporters.

The US defence chief acknowledged that Beijing does attempt to influence Pyongyang but sometimes "North Korea doesn't pay attention. The hope is that they'll continue to push North Korea to try to do the right thing."

He was speaking at a press conference with the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Martin Dempsey, and the commander of 28,500 US troops in South Korea, General James Thurman.

Panetta arrived Wednesday in Seoul, the last leg of a tour which also covered Indonesia and Japan.

Earlier Thursday he held talks with his counterpart Kim Kwan-Jin, President Lee Myung-Bak and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan.

Inter-Korean ties have been tense since Seoul accused its neighbour of torpedoing a warship in March 2010 with the loss of 46 lives.

The North denied responsibility for the sinking but shelled a border island last November, killing four South Koreans.

US and South Korean defence officials were to hold a meeting Friday on military cooperation to deter North Korean attacks. Panetta has said the North remains a "serious threat" to its neighbour.

N. Korean refugees stranded by Thai floods: report
Seoul (AFP) Oct 27, 2011 - Severe floods in Thailand have disrupted a favoured escape route for North Koreans fleeing their homeland, a report said Thursday.

About 30 to 40 refugees are waiting for transfer to Bangkok from the northwestern border town of Mae Sai, said Daily NK, a Seoul-based Internet newspaper run by former refugees.

Almost all refugees escape on foot to China but face repatriation if they are caught there. Many travel surreptitiously on what is nicknamed the "underground railway" to Southeast Asia and then seek resettlement in South Korea.

Those refugees who come to Thailand through Laos across the Mekong River report themselves to authorities in Chiang Mai before being transferred to the immigration office in Bangkok, Daily NK said.

But the preferred route through Mae Sai, Chiang Mai and Bangkok is now difficult to transit because of serious flooding, it said.

Daily NK quoted Park Gwang-Su, a refugee already in South Korea, as saying he fears for his family, which moved from Laos to Thailand a few days ago.

"If Bangkok is flooded they would be stranded: having arrived in Chiang Mai they would not be able to leave for the immigration office in Bangkok," Park said.

More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled their impoverished and hunger-stricken homeland for South Korea since the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years.