North Korea: scrap sanctions or we won’t resume talks

North Korea today demanded the scrapping of UN sanctions and US-South Korea military drills as conditions for resuming talks to defuse escalating tension in the region.

The statement was made by the National Defence Commission, the country’s top governing body. The US says it is ready to talk to the North if Pyongyang reduces tensions and honours disarmament agreements.

But the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said: “Dialogue can never go with war actions.” It called on the US to withdraw all nuclear weapons assets from the region, and said the South must stop anti-North rhetoric, such as blaming Pyongyang for a cyber attack that shut down tens of thousands of South Korean computers and servers at broadcasters.

Cho Tai-young, spokesman for South Korea’s foreign ministry, said: “We again strongly urge North Korea to stop this kind of insistence, and go down the path of a wise choice.”

North Korea has threatened to attack the US and its neighbour over military drills and sanctions imposed for its February nuclear test. There are fears the North is poised to test-fire a missile capable of reaching the US territory of Guam.