MOSCOW/TOKYO, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Pyongyang has set out a list of conditions for dialogue with the United States and the South Korea, including an end to UN sanctions and South Korean and US military exercises, the North said on Thursday in a state media statement.
The conditions were announced by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, citing a statement from the National Defense Commission, amid growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula following sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Pyongyang after recent missile launches and nuclear tests.
"The first step will be withdrawing the UN Security Council resolutions cooked up on ridiculous grounds," Pyongyang said.
North Korea was also angered by the US and South Korea starting annual joint military exercises in March, which Pyongyang demanded they cease permanently.
“Dialogues and war games can never go together," it added.
The North said the US and South Korea must "must make the resolute decision...to avoid the sledge-hammer retaliatory blows of the army and people."
In recent weeks, North Korea has threatened attacks on the US and the South, and recommended all foreigners on the peninsula to evacuate to avoid the threat of war.
The South’s Unification Ministry reacted by pointing out Pyongyang had already rejected calls for dialogue by both South Korea and the United States earlier in the week.
"The North has overlooked or ignored the meaning and intent of talks proposed by Seoul and Washington," the ministry was quoted as saying by the South’s Yonhap news agency on Thursday.
