The United States wants to eliminate its "undue dependence" on rare earths, solar panels and other key goods from China to prevent Beijing from cutting off supplies as it has done to other countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

Yellen, who arrived in Seoul late on Monday, told Reuters she was pushing for increased trade ties with South Korea and other trusted allies to improve the resilience of supply chains and avert any possible manipulation by geopolitical rivals.

"Resilient supply chains mean a diversity of sources of supply and eliminating to the extent we can the possibility that geopolitical rivals will be able to manipulate us and threaten our security," she said in an interview en route to Seoul.

Yellen said China was listening to U.S. concerns in other areas and that it made some constructive moves on restructuring the debt of low-income countries.

"We have real concerns with respect to China and we’re pressing them, but I don’t want to convey a picture of purely escalating hostilities with China,” she said.