N.Korea Rules Out Dialogue with U.S.
North Korea on Tuesday ruled out any dialogue with the United States about its nuclear program and human rights record, saying the U.S. was trying to destroy its system.
The North "will never allow any human rights dialogue or nuclear one with the enemy keen to overthrow it", a foreign ministry spokesman said through the official Korean Central News Agency.
The idea of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula has become "totally meaningless" due to the U.S. policy of trying to bring down North Korea and its social system over human rights issues, he said.
"It is self-evident that one party cannot discuss its unilateral disarming with the rival party keen to bring it down at any cost," the spokesman said.
North Korea has expressed interest in the past in reviving six-party talks with the U.S. and others about its nuclear program, but Washington and Seoul insist Pyongyang must first show a tangible commitment to denuclearization.
The aid-for-denuclearization talks involving both Koreas, China, the U.S., Russia and Japan have been stalled since 2009.
Recently the North has stepped up a diplomatic offensive aimed at neutralising a proposed United Nations resolution requesting that it be referred to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution.
A draft resolution to be presented soon by the European Union and Japan to the U.N. General Assembly is expected harshly to condemn rights abuses in the North, based on the findings of a U.N. report.
The March report detailed cases of "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence".
In the past the totalitarian regime had refused to discuss rights issues. But in recent weeks it has held rare U.N. briefings, ostensibly in a bid to counter growing global criticism.
Last week North Korean officials held a meeting with Marzuki Darusman, the country's first for 10 years with a U.N. rights investigator. They offered to host U.N. envoys.
Source: Agence France Presse
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