North Korea will not rejoin six-nation nuclear talks until the United States drops financial sanctions, a spokesman for the country's delegation to a regional security forum said Thursday.
"There can be no such a thing as six-way talks," spokesman Chung Sung-Il told reporters after North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun arrived in Kuala Lumpur.
"As we have already said, the United States should first lift its financial sanctions on us… if they want to see the six-way talks resume at an early date," Chung added.
The North's announcement follows feverish diplomacy aimed at arranging an informal session of the six-party talks on its nuclear programme at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived earlier in Malaysia, saying she was not anticipating any progress on the issue.
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek arrived at Kuala Lumpur without answering questions from reporters.
Wearing a dark suit and apparently suffering from a limp, an electric airport buggy whisked him through the arrivals hall to a waiting North Korean embassy car.
North Korea walked out of the talks in November after Washington accused a Macau-based bank of helping Pyongyang launder earnings from fake US currency, and told US financial institutions to stop dealing with the bank.
Pyongyang ratcheted up the pressure earlier this month when it defiantly launched a long-range missile reportedly capable of reaching the United States as well as several medium- and short-range rockets.
The talks group North and South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Russia. All six countries have representatives at the ASEAN meeting.
