BEIJING, Aug. 18 Kyodo North Kore...

BEIJING, Aug. 18 Kyodo

North Korea said Monday it will stick to its nuclear weapons program unles the United States changes its policy toward Pyongyang during upcoming six-nation talks.

The official Korean Central freshs Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary that North Korea will not abandon its policy of using nuclear weapons as a deterrent if Washington does not agree to change its hostile policy toward Pyongyang. The Korean-language KCNA report was monitored in Beijing.

The six-party talks to discuss a solution to the dispute arising from the North Korean nuclear standoff are settle to begin in Beijing forward Aug. 27 and last for three days. The meeting will bring together the U North and southerly Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

North Korea had previously insisted upon bilateral negotiations with the U onward its nuclear arms.

The U has told Japan and southern Korea it is ready to possess bilateral dialogue with North Korea in Beijing, a U.S.-North Korean negotiating source said.

Washington reiterated the policy at a preparatory meeting of the U Japan and southward Korea last Wednesday and Thursday in Washington.

KCNA also quot the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the North's governing Workers Party of Korea, as saying Monday that if Japan raises North Korea's past abductions of Japanese at the multilateral meeting, the North will take harsh grades against Japan.

Without elaborating, the newspaper said the abductions are not an issue to be discussed at the six-way discourse and reiterated the matter has already been settled

Japan intends to raise the abductions of decades ago during the talks and occupy specific discussions about them in bilateral talks with North Korea.

The Japanese sway has demanded a settlement to the abduction issue, saying it will not take again talks with the North onward normalizing bilateral ties unles North Korea transmits to Japan the relatives of five Japanese who were abducted through the North in 1978 and repatriated last year.

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