The photo taken on Monday and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting the firepower strike drill ground of long-range artillery sub-units of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location (See story on Page 15). Photo: AFP

A top diplomat of North Korea has vowed that Pyongyang will ignore the US' outreach until Washington "rolls back its hostile policy," the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday.

First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui stated on Wednesday, saying that the US has tried to contact them since mid-February through several channels, but "we don't think there is need to respond to the US time-delaying trick again."

"We have already declared our stand that no DPRK-US contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the US rolls back its hostile policy towards the DPRK. Therefore, we will disregard such an attempt of the US in the future, too," Choe said.

She pointed out that in order for a dialogue to be made, an atmosphere for both parties to exchange words on an equal basis must be created, but what has been heard from the US "since the emergence of the new regime" is only a lunatic theory of "threat from North Korea" and groundless rhetoric about "complete denuclearization."

The US military "keeps stealthily putting military threats to us and is committing spying acts against us with the involvement of lots of reconnaissance assets," and "openly started aggression-minded joint military exercises targeting us," therefore, it seems the US has not yet dropped "the habit of doggedly faulting the DPRK," Choe noted.

"It had better drop the cheap trick by which it tries to use the DPRK-US contact as a means for gaining time and building up the public opinion," she said.

Xinhua