N. Korea Demands end of Sanctions if U.S. Wants Dialogue

{{North Korea offered the United States and South Korea a list of conditions on Thursday for talks, including the lifting of U.N. sanctions, signalling a possible end to weeks of warlike hostility on the Korean peninsula.}}

The North Korea’s top military body also said in a statement the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula would begin when the United States removed nuclear weapons that the isolated state says Washington has deployed in the region.

The move was likely a sop to the North’s only major backer, China, which has signalled its growing unease over the escalation of threats, and which said later on Thursday that talks were the only correct way to end the tension.

“Dialogue and war cannot co-exist,” the North’s National Defence Commission said in the statement .

“If the United States and the puppet South have the slightest desire to avoid the sledge-hammer blow of our army and the people … and truly wish dialogue and negotiations, they must make the resolute decision,” it said.

The United States has offered talks, but on the pre-condition that they lead to North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons ambitions. North Korea deems its nuclear arms a “treasured sword” and has vowed never to give them up.

Nevertheless, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who ended a trip to the region early this week that was dominated by concern about North Korea, stressed his interest in a diplomatic solution.

South Korea which is conducting military exercises with U.S. forces to the anger of North Korea, has also proposed talks, a move that Pyongyang rejected as insincere.

KCNA