DHAKA: North Korea has accused the United States of ignoring its wish to settle the problem of its nuclear programme through negotiations and of disrupting the negotiating process.

‘The US improper behaviour of deliberately creating obstacles in the way of resuming the (six-part) talks under absurd preconditions will always be blamed,’ the Korean Central News Agency quoted a North Korean Foreign Ministry official as saying, reports The Voice of Russia.

It is the United States’ ‘hostile policy’ toward North Korea that compels it ‘to steadily bolster deterrence as long as the US becomes all the more undisguised in pursuing hostile moves and increasing nuclear threats’, he said.

Washington has indicated repeatedly that the six-party talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula can be resumed after Pyongyang demonstrates its willingness to abandon the military component of its nuclear programme and comply with its international commitments in that area.

The six-party talks were suspended at North Korea’s demand in 2009, when North Korea withdrew from the negotiating process to protest against a UN Security Council statement condemning Pyongyang for launching a ballistic missile in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions.

 BDST: 1846 HRS, NOV 27, 2013