North Korea bristled Tuesday at the United States keeping the communist regime on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, warning that the window for dialogue between the two countries is narrowing due to such "hostile policy."
A spokesperson for the North's foreign ministry made the remarks in an interview with the Korean Central News Agency, adding it "condemns and fully rejects (the recent US terrorism report) as a grave politically-motivated provocation" against the North.
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"The channel of the dialogue between the DPRK and the US is more and more narrowing due to such attitude and stand of the US," the spokesperson was quoted as saying in English. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In the Country Reports on Terrorism published Friday, the US mentioned North Korea's redesignation as a state sponsor of terrorism in 2017 but removed earlier descriptions of the regime's "dangerous and malicious behavior," possibly in consideration of the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the two sides.
In early October, the US and North Korea held working-level nuclear talks in Stockholm after months of a stalemate, but the talks broke down again with Pyongyang accusing Washington of failing to come up with a new proposal.
The North Korean spokesperson said such US efforts to "brand" the North as a state sponsor of terrorism "at a sensitive time" when their dialogue is at a stalemate is an "insult to and perfidy against" Pyongyang. (Yonhap)
