North Korea said that it would not give up its nuclear deterrent until the United States ends its “hostile policy” towards Pyongyang, but that it was ready to revive international talks on its nuclear program frozen since 2008.

The United States and its allies believe North Korea violated a 2005 aid-for-denuclearisation deal by conducting a nuclear test the following year and pursuing uranium enrichment that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based atomic program.
So Se Pyong, the North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, warned that a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise planned for August would raise tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.
He also reiterated his country’s call for dismantling the U.S.-led U.N. Command in South Korea, which dates from the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War without a peace treaty. The 60th anniversary of the armistice falls on July 27.
He was speaking at a rare news conference held in North Korea’s mission in Geneva.
His counterpart at the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Sin Son-ho, made a similar appeal for dissolution of the U.N. Command on June 21.
North and South Korea agreed on Sunday to take steps to reopen a jointly run industrial park, including facilities inspections, after the two rivals staged a marathon meeting lasting more than 16 hours to arrange details.