N Korea, blaming US, rejects new six-nation talks

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 (Reuters) A senior North Korean official told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that Pyongyang was willing to resume six-nation talks on ending its nuclear arms program but would not do so due to US actions.

While North Korea was ''willing to hold the talks more than any other countries,'' Washington has imposed financial sanctions on it and scrapped the agenda for the talks' coming rounds, ''creating the present impasse,'' said Mr Choe Su Hon, North Korea's deputy foreign minister.

''It is quite preposterous that the DPRK, under the groundless US sanctions, takes part in the talks of discussing its own nuclear abandonment,'' Choe said, referring to the formal name of his country -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- by its initials.

''This is the matter of principle intolerable of even the slightest concession,'' he said.

The last round of the six-party talks was held in November 2005. The participants are North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

REUTERS BDP RK2335