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North Korea cannot abandon nuclear programme, ambassador says

North Korea has said it cannot abandon its nuclear programme, which it says is necessary as a deterrent to a US threat.

Han Tae Song, the country's ambassador to the United Nations, ruled out negotiations with America as long as joint US-South Korea military exercises continued.

He said the country was "ready" for new sanctions and dismissed the possibility of North Korea being added to a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

"My country will continue to build-up its self-defence capability, the pivot of which is nuclear forces and capability for a triumphant...strike as long as US and hostile forces keep up nuclear threat and blackmail," he said.

"Our country plans ultimate completion of the nuclear force."

He also criticised the country's sanctions, saying they were aimed at "isolating and stifling it and to intentionally bring about humanitarian disaster instead of preventing weapons development as claimed by the US."

But he struck a note of defiance, saying Pyongyang was "ready" for new economic actions against it.

The ambassador was speaking at the North Korean mission in Geneva on Friday, as South Korea and the US agreed in Seoul to keep co-operating towards a peaceful end to the crisis.

A US envoy said it was difficult to assess the intention of Pyongyang as there had been "no signal".

Mr Han took issue with the ongoing co-operation between the two allies, which he said used nuclear assets, aircraft carriers and strategic bombers in South Korea.

"As long as there is continuous hostile policy against my country by the US and as long as there are continued war games at our doorstep, then there will not be negotiations," he said.

Some 28,500 American troops are stationed in North Korea, a legacy of the 1953 war.