The Democratic People's Republicof Korea (DPRK) said on Thursday that it is suspending its participation in the six-party talks on the nuclear issue for an "indefinite period," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as reporting.

The statement said " We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks and there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks."

"The present deadlock of the six-party talks is attributable to the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK," the statement said.

There is no justification for the DPRK to participate in the six-party talks again given that the Bush administration termed the DPRK, a dialogue partner, an "outpost of tyranny", it said.

"The U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick. This compels us to take a measure to bolster its unclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by its people," said the statement.

"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the NPT and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," it said.

"The DPRK's principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged," the statement added.

Source: Xinhua