N Korea to dismantle nukes only after change of US policy

"If the US does not express its will to make a switchover in its policy towards the DPRK (North Korea), the DPRK will have no option but to declare that it can not dismantle its nuclear deterrent force at the talks," the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

North Korea is due to meet the United States, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea in Beijing on August 27-29 for talks resolve a 10-month crisis over its nuclear weapons program.

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KCNA said Washington could prove it had changed its policy towards North Korea by agreeing to a non-aggression pact and diplomatic normalisation, and pledging not to hinder Pyongyang's international trade.

A foreign ministry statement released on KCNA last week said Pyongyang would make these demands at the talks, which are the result of weeks of Chinese-led active diplomacy.

The United States has already rejected a non-aggression pact, although Secretary of State Colin Powell has suggested there may be a way for the US Congress to take note of a less formal arrangement.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October last year when the United States accused Pyongyang of reneging on a 1994 bilateral nuclear accord by setting up a clandestine program based on enriched uranium.

North Korea, which says it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States, soon expelled UN nuclear inspectors and withdrew from the treaty.

It has since claimed to have reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods at its nuclear plant at Yongbyon.

Meanwhile, US and South Korean troops began joint war games Monday in the face of objection from North Korea which condemned the exercise as a rehearsal for a pre-emptive strike on the communist country.

The annual Ulchi Focus Lens exercise, focusing on computerised war simulations with North Korea, involves 14,500 US forces based in and out of South Korea, US military authorities here said.