‘North Korea will not quit nuclear programme under US threat’

PYONGYANG - North Korea will not give up its nuclear weapons programme under US threat, a foreign ministry spokesman said here Saturday.

‘If there is something to be desired by us (North Korea), it is not normalisation of relations with the US, but to boost nuclear deterrent in every possible way,’ the official KCNA news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

The latest round of the six-party talks, comprising China, South Korea, Japan, the US and Russia, on North Korea’s nuclear weapons disarmament in December last year ended with no agreement.

North Korea and the US differed over the verification process.

Pyongyang has urged the US to drop its hostile policy towards North Korea before it ends its nuclear weapons programme.