North Korea: Nuclear talks 'impossible' unless US lifts sanctions

North Korea said today it could not return to international nuclear disarmament talks unless the US lifted sanctions imposed for its alleged currency counterfeiting and other illegal activities.

“While under US sanctions, it’s impossible to sit face to face and discuss abandoning our nuclear deterrent ... with a counterpart who seeks to isolate and stifle us,” said the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s ruling Workers Party newspaper, in a Korean-language commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

“The US sanctions are obviously the fundamental element that disrupts the six-party talks,” the newspaper said.

The commentary was the first North Korean statement on the nuclear issue this year. On New Year’s Day, the communist state issued a joint editorial by major newspapers, but did not mention the dispute.

In September, Washington placed sanctions on a Macau-based bank after it allegedly helped the North distribute counterfeit currency and engage in other illicit activities.

The next month, the US sanctioned eight North Korean companies it claimed were fronts for proliferating weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea reacted swiftly and angrily, calling the US allegations a “sheer lie” and threatening to boycott the nuclear talks with the Washington, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia unless the sanctions were lifted.

Washington says it has convincing evidence of the North’s wrongdoing, but stressed that the issue was a law enforcement matter unrelated to the nuclear talks.

North Korea claims the US is seeking to overthrow its regime behind a smokescreen of dialogue. It says the sanctions and emphasis by the US on the North’s human rights abuses are signs of Washington’s “hostility”.

In September, the North pledged at the nuclear talks in Beijing to give up its atomic programmes in return for aid and security assurances. But no progress was made on implementing the agreement after North Korea placed new conditions - which the US said were unacceptable – on its disarmament.

Today, North Korea said the US sanctions ran counter to the September accord, making “hostile relations” between the two sides “tenser”, adding the outlook for the nuclear talks was “getting darker”.

The talks adjourned in November. Negotiators agreed to meet again, but did not set a date.

The dispute flared in October, 2002, following US claims that the North was running a secret nuclear weapons programme against international agreements.