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North Korea: No Talks With South Korea Ever Again

Reuters

   SEOUL - North Korea said Friday it will never sit down with South Korea
   for talks again, rejecting a vow by the South's President Moon Jae-in
   to pursue dialog with Pyongyang made the previous day as he pledged to
   bring in unification by 2045.

   The North has protested joint military drills conducted by South Korea
   and the United States, which kicked off last week, calling them a
   "rehearsal for war" and has fired several short-range missiles in
   recent weeks.

   The loss of dialog momentum between the North and South and the
   stalemate in implementing a historic summit between their two leaders
   last year is entirely the responsibility of the South, a North Korean
   spokesman said in a statement.

   Blaming US-Korea exercises

   The spokesman repeated criticism that the joint U.S.-South Korea drills
   was sign of Seoul's hostility against the North.

   "As it will be clear, we have nothing more to talk about with South
   Korean authorities and we have no desire to sit down with them again,"
   the North's spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification
   of the Country said.

   The committee is tasked with managing the North's relationship with the
   South. The rival Koreas remain technically at war under a truce ending
   the 1950-53 Korean War.

   The comments were carried by official KCNA news agency.

   Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have met three times since
   April last year pledging peace and cooperation but little progress has
   been made to improve dialog and strengthen exchange and cooperation.

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