North Korea accused the United States today of refusing one-on-one talks to dodge its responsibility for the five-month-long stand-off over the Stalinist state's nuclear ambitions.
"It is not the stand of settling the nuclear issue for the US to insist on multilateral talks instead of responding to the direct talks with the DPRK (North Korea)," said Rodong Sinmun, the communist party organ.
"The US call for multilateral talks is aimed to internationalise the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula to evade its responsibility."
Rodong Sinmun urged the United States to accept its demand for one-on-one talks to "fulfill its responsibility as the direct party concerned with the settlement of the nuclear issue."
Tension has been building on the peninsula since the US disclosure in October last year that North Korea had been running a secret nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in breach of a 1994 nuclear safeguard agreement.
While ratcheting up tension, North Korea has repeatedly proposed face-to-face talks with the United States, an offer flatly rejected by Washington which views Pyongyang's tactics as nuclear blackmail.
The United States has instead called for multilateral talks, which it says should include regional players Japan, China, Russia and South Korea.
US Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that the United States remained committed to finding a multilateral diplomatic solution.
AFP