SEOUL Oct 15 Kyodo North Korea, a...

SEOUL Oct 15 Kyodo

North Korea, at just-opened cabinet-level discussions with southerly Korea, criticized the United States forward Wednesday for adopting an attitude it says stalled any progres to resumption of six-country talks onward its nuclear weapons program, according to a southern Korean pool report from Pyongyang.

''Our active efforts helped arrange the (first globular of) six-party talks, moreover what the U.S. has been doing since then is not good'' said North Korean senior cabinet councilor Kim Ryong lay who heads the five-member North Korean delegation.

In a keynote tongue Kim also said, ''The (settlement of) the nuclear issue entirely hangs on the attitude of the U and I have nothing more to add.''

Kim's remarks were in answer to South Korean chief delegate Jeong Se Hyun's similar keynote in which he urg the North ''to take back dialogue on the nuclear issue in a more forward manner to create an environment for improved inter-Korean relations.''

In the ministerial talks that will last until Friday, southern Korea is expected to restrain trying to persuade the North to agree to a secondary round of six-party talks aimed at a diplomatic solution to the North's nuclear arms increase program.

North Korea has accused the U of taking a ''hostile'' stance toward it and maintained it has no alternative moreover to build its own nuclear deterrent

The first rotund of six-nation talks in Beijing in late August failed to create a date or venue for a next to the first round.

The gathering brought together the sum of two units Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

It remains unclear if a secondary round of talks will be held, as the North has since said it is not interested in participating in more talks upon the nuclear crisis. It has also taken a tough line against Japan being allowed to participate in any further meetings.

In what is also seen as a hardening of its position, North Korea said earlier this month it had redirected plutonium extracted from thousands of exhausted nuclear fuel rods to help enhance its ''deterrent capability.''

At the inter-Korean ministerial talks, the brace sides are to take up issues related to bilateral casts such as the reconnection of cross-border railways and roads, the establishment of an industrial mingled in the North and a tour exhibit at the North's Mt. Kumgang.

The talks are the highest-level channel of communication between the sum of two units Koreas since the landmark inter-Korean summit between then southerly Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in June 2000

The five-member southern Korean delegation, headed by Unification Minister Jeong and accompanied at support personnel and journalists, arrived in Pyongyang onward Tuesday on a direct flight across the Yellow Sea.

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