North Korea rejected further talks on its nuclear program because of US breakdown, Choe Su Hon, Deputy Foreign Minister of North Korea, said Tuesday.

"It is quite preposterous that North Korea, under the groundless US sanctions, takes part in the talks of discussing its own nuclear abandonment," Choe said in his speech to the general debate of the 61st session of the UN General Assembly.

"This is the matter of principle intolerable of even the slightest concession," he stressed.
 
Choe reiterated that North Korea maintains its consistent position to resolve the issue of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula peacefully through dialogue and negotiations, adding it is willing to hold the talks more than any other countries.

"However, the United States, soon after the announcement of the Joint Statement, has spent no time in imposing financial sanctions up on North Korea," he severely blamed the United States.

What the United States had done eventually scrapped the already-agreed itinerary for the following rounds of the talks and created the present impasse, the deputy foreign minister argued.

He pointed out that "it is crystal that the United States is not in favor of the Six-Party Talks and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Meanwhile, Choe emphasized the importance of the implementation of the North-South Joint Declaration which was signed on June 15, 2000.

Under the banner of the Joint Declaration and under the ideals of By Our Nation Itself, North Korea will surely achieve the national reunification by firmly realizing the cooperation in three areas of national independence, peace against war and patriotism for reunification.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)