Al Jazeera.
North Korea has demanded the withdrawal of UN sanctions and the end
of US-South Korea military drills as conditions for resuming talks with
Seoul and Washington.
The list of pre-conditions outlined on Thursday, which came from the
North's top military body, insisted on a general apology for all
"provocative acts" taken against North Korea.
The North's statement said: "Dialogue can never go with war actions."
The conditions will likely be rejected by South Korea and the US,
which have themselves made any talks conditional on the North taking
steps towards denuclearisation.
Dialogue has become the new focus of a blistering rhetorical battle
that has sent military tensions soaring on the Korean peninsula ever
since the North carried out its third nuclear test in February.
Some analysts see the North's engagement in a debate over dialogue as
a welcome shift from the apocalyptic threats of nuclear war that have
poured out of Pyongyang in recent weeks.
"I don't think Pyongyang really expects these conditions to be met,"
said Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies
in Seoul.
"It's an initial show of strength in a game of tug-of-war that at
least shows a desire to have a dialogue down the line,"Yang said.
