N Korea blames US, rejects new six-nation talks

United Nations, Sep 27: North Korea refuses to resume six-nation talks on ending its nuclear arms program because of unilateral US actions, a senior North Korean official told the UN General Assembly today.

While North Korea wants new 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 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,'' Mr 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 six-nation talks was held in November 2005. The participants are North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

At the urging of the United States, Macau-based Banco Delta Asia last year froze North Korean accounts that Washington suspected were linked to illegal activity such as counterfeiting.

The United States has in recent months intensified the crackdown, making it more difficult for North Korea to do banking anywhere in the world.

Mr Choe reminded the 192-nation assembly of a September 19, 2005, agreement adopted by the six nations under which North Korea was to scrap its nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid, pledges it would not be attacked and promises of better diplomatic ties.

That deal raised hopes for a solution to the security concerns raised by Pyongyang's pursuit of an atomic arsenal, but momentum soon died down and it was not implemented.

Mr Choe said Pyongyang remained committed to all the agreement's provisions. ''The DPRK is sure to get a greater benefit from the implementation of the agreed provisions of the talks. That is why it is willing to hold the talks more than any other countries,'' he said.

But subsequent US actions made it ''crystal clear that the US is not in favor of the six-party talks and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,'' he said.

Reuters

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