New York City ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, making her first major policy speech, urged North Korea on Friday not to take any “provocative” actions that could undermine peace efforts.

Amid press reports that North Korea might be preparing a long-range missile test, Clinton pledged to hold the communist regime to its commitments to give up its nuclear programs in return for international aid and political concessions.

“We will need to work together to address the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia: North Korea’s nuclear program,” she said.

Clinton spoke to New York’s Asia Society on the eve of a trip to visit China, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea — her first as secretary of state — and noted that their major economies and huge populations will be critical to turning around the global financial crisis.