North Korea faces further isolation from the rest of the world if it continues with its nuclear programme, Foreign Secretary William Hague says, according to Belfast Telegraph.

Hague said the communist state had to engage in "constructive engagement" with the international community or it could end up a "broken country".

In a written ministerial statement to Parliament following last week's G8 meeting in London, Hague accused the regime of "frenetic and bellicose rhetoric".

He said: "Our message to North Korea is clear. It has a choice, between constructive engagement with the international community, or further international action and isolation. The choice it is taking now will lead it to be a broken country, isolated from the rest of the world."

Hague said that at the moment he did not plan to close the British embassy in Pyongyang but the situation was being kept "under constant review". He is due to make a statement in the Commons later.

Last week he warned the regime it faced fresh sanctions if it went ahead with a predicted missile test in the escalating nuclear stand-off with its neighbours and their Western allies.

Following talks in London of foreign ministers from the G8 industrialised nations, he said they had committed themselves to "further significant measures" if the test went ahead.

"Clearly what we are talking about is in the field of sanctions. We would discuss such measures at the UN Security Council," Hague said.