DPRK accuses U.S. of setting "absurd preconditions" for resumption of nuke talks

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday slammed the United States for laying out "absurd preconditions" for the resumption of six-party talks.

In an interview with the official news agency KCNA, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry accused Glyn Davies, U.S. special representative for policy on the DPRK, of unreasonably demanding Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons program first, while Washington itself had failed to fulfill its obligations.

"What the special representative said and did proved that the U.S. has had no interest in the resumption of the six-party talks from the beginning, while persisting in absurd preconditions," said the unnamed spokesman.

The six-party talks are aimed at removing the root cause of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearizing the whole peninsula.

"We want a negotiated settlement of the issue but will never accede to unreasonable preconditions raised by the United States," he said.

Pyongyang remains unchanged in its goal for the denuclearization of the whole peninsula, but it will only be compelled to steadily bolster deterrence as long as Washington continues its hostile moves and increases nuclear threats toward the DPRK, the spokesman added.

After a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yong, in Seoul on Friday, Davies said the United States had no interest in returning to the six-party talks without concrete signs that the DPRK will abandon its nuclear weapons.

Earlier this month, envoys from the United States, South Korea and Japan agreed, after talks in Washington, not to restart the six-way dialogue unless the DPRK shows its commitment to giving up nuclear weapons.

The DPRK, China and Russia, the other parties to the six-party talks, have been calling for prompt resumption of the talks without any strings attached.