North Korea wants sanctions lifted

A North Korean diplomat has said that his country will resume talks on its nuclear programme only when all international sanctions have been lifted.

Choe Jin-su, the North Korean envoy to China, said the sanctions were “an expression of distrust” between Pyongyang and Washington, and cautioned that the US must also agree to peace treaty talks.

“Only concluding a peace treaty can eradicate the hostile relations between the [North] and the United States and rapidly and actively advance denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” Choe said in a rare briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

The North conducted its second-ever nuclear test in May 2009, drawing international condemnation and a fresh round of UN sanctions.

“Only if the sanctions on [North Korea], these barriers expressing discrimination and distrust, are removed can the six-party talks resume,” Choe said.

“If the sanctions are lifted, then the six-party talks can resume immediately. The key word is immediately.”