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NORTH KOREA on Wednesday demanded that the United States drop its 'hostile policies' ahead of talks by ministers from six nations negotiating the denuclearisation of the country, a report said.
Ri Dong Il, a spokesman for North Korea's delegation at a regional security forum, said according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency that moves to drop the North from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism was not enough.
'An important thing in the next stage is for the US to lift punitive measures and hostile policies completely and fundamentally,' he reportedly said.
'Our republic submitted a nuclear declaration in a sincere effort and even took the measure of demolishing a cooling tower, which was supposed to be done in the nuclear dismantling phase,' he added.
The comments came ahead of the first-ever meeting of foreign ministers from the six countries negotiating the North Korean nuclear issue - North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
On July 12, Pyongyang agreed to completely disable its main weapons-grade plutonium-producing facilities by the end of October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify the June declaration of its nuclear programmes.
But so far Pyongyang has not approved a proposed verification mechanism, and Mr Ri said the talks would focus on this issue - the second phase of a three-stage denuclearisation process.
'(North Korea) will participate in the talks with the aim of discussing how to create a driving force to clearly finalise the second phase measures,' said Mr Ri, director of the foreign ministry's international organisation department.
In return for the deactivation of the nuclear facilities, the other five parties would deliver oil assistance to North Korea as agreed to in a landmark denuclearisation pact reached last year. -- AFP
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