North Korea 'not interested' in more nuclear talks

North Korea no longer has “interest or expectations” in further talks on its nuclear programme, a spokesman for Pyongyang’s delegation to the six-nation talks on the subject said today.

“There is no need for this kind of talks,” said the unidentified spokesman, who made the remarks to reporters at the airport as the delegation was leaving Beijing after the landmark three-day meeting.

The United States, North Korea, Japan, South Korea and Russian attended the discussions, which ended yesterday with the goal of holding another round of talks in the near future. No date was immediately set.

“We no longer have interest or expectations either,” he said. “We are left with no option as it became clear that the United States wants to disarm our nation.”

The six countries had gathered in an effort to ease tensions and hostilities which have been building since Pyongyang acknowledged in October that it restarted a nuclear programme it had supposedly shut down.

The United States has demanded that the programme be stopped immediately, but the North has refused to comply unless it receives economic aid and a nonaggression treaty from the United States.

Brinkmanship and bluster have characterised North Korea’s diplomacy in recent years. During the six-nation talks, North Korea said it would prove to the world it possessed nuclear weapons by testing a nuclear device, according to a US official.

But Pyongyang’s chief delegate, vice foreign minister Kim Yong Il, also suggested his country was willing to abandon the nuclear weapons programme if the United States agreed to its conditions.

“It is not our goal to have nuclear weapons,” Pyongyang’s state-run news agency, KCNA, quoted Kim as saying.