North Korea says US is plotting to harm it

SEOUL, Dec 20 (Reuters) North Korea accused the United States today of scheming to do it harm even as the two were locked in diplomatic negotiations to curtail Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions.

Negotiators from six countries, including North Korea and the United States, are holding talks in Beijing this week on the nuclear issue.

''The United States is working on a plot to hurt the DPRK (North Korea) behind the negotiation table,'' the KCNA news agency quoted the official Rodong Sinmun daily as saying.

The article is the closest the reclusive state's official media have come to commenting on the Beijing talks since they resumed on Monday.

It said the United States and South Korea, its ally, were planning large-scale war exercises as part of a plan to attack the communist state.

''The US scheme of negotiating at front and working on military provocation plans at the back simply reminds us that the United States cannot be trusted.

''We have already made it clear several times that the DPRK is ready for either dialogue or war.'' It said a US-led crackdown on the North's offshore finances, which analysts say has hit the pockets of the rulers of the impoverished country, had only further damaged relations between Washington and Pyongyang.

The six-party talks resumed after a one-year boycott by the North and follow a nuclear test, the country's first, in October.

REUTERS PB PM0921