N. Korea vows not to return to six-party talks unless U.S. drops sanctions

North Korea's No. 2 leader vowed not to return to the six-party talks on his country's nuclear weapons program, unless the United States lifts financial restrictions on the communist state, news reports said Sunday.

The remarks by Kim Yong-nam, the North's parliamentary chief, came two days after the presidents of South Korea and the United States reaffirmed their commitment to reopen the disarmament talks, last convened in November.

"The United States, far from complying with the six-party commission's agreements, has continued to impose unilateral sanctions, bringing the talks to a standstill and dragging the situation into an unpredictable point," Kim told the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana, according to AFP, a French news agency.

"Our country will never return to the talks under U.S. sanctions."

The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, have been deadlocked, as North Korea protested against U.S.-imposed sanctions on it for alleged counterfeiting, money-laundering and other financial irregularities.

The confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington worsened after the U.S. urged international banks to stop dealing with North Korea following the North's multiple missile launches on July 5.

Kim, who is second in line to reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, said his country cannot help but expand its nuclear arsenal due to U.S. hostility toward it, other news agencies reported.

North Korea "has been left with no other option but to possess nuclear weapons as a self-defensive deterrent," Kim was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"The DPRK would not even need a single nuclear weapon if there was no longer a U.S. threat." DPRK is short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The North's nuclear issue will be resolved only when the U.S. "changes its hostile policy into a peaceful coexistence policy and fundamentally eliminates all U.S. nuclear weapons and the danger of nuclear war in and around the Korean Peninsula," he added. On Thursday in Washington, South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush agreed to seek a "common and broad approach" to reopen the six-nation talks, according to South Korean officials.

The agreement helped ease concerns the U.S. was moving to launch additional sanctions on North Korea amid growing differences with South Korea over how to deal with North Korea.

The Bush administration favors a harder line on the North, while the Roh government prefers dialogue and diplomacy.

Seoul, Sept. 17 (Yonhap News)