The Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army (KPA) said on Thursday that it will not negotiate with the US forces unless they abandons the name of the "UN forces."

"We will no longer overlook the US act of abusing the inviolable name of the United Nations in a bid to attain its sinister aim to invade the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," a KPA spokesman said in a statement, referring to the US assertion of its forces in South Korea as the "UN forces" and the "UN Command."

About 37,000 US troops have been stationed in South Korea since the Armistice Agreement ended the three-year Korean War in 1953.

The chief of the KPA's Panmunjom Mission sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July to demand clarification of the relations between the "UN forces" and "UN Command" with the world body.

A UN spokesman answered the letter on July 27, saying the US forces in South Korea were not "UN forces" but the "US-led allied forces," according to the statement.

"The 'UN forces' claimed by the US are not the forces created and dispatched by the UN but troops of 15 satellite nations Washington put under its command after hurling them into the Korean War," the statement quoted the UN spokesman as saying.

"It is a well-known fact that the US and its satellite forces that had participated in the Korean War were commanded by the US Defense Department and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff," said the KPA spokesman.

"The US should dismantle the 'UN Command' and take a measure to pull back its forces from South Korea at the earliest possible date," he added.