Asia-Pacific

DPRK dismisses Seoul nuclear summit as ridiculous

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-12 10:59

SEOUL - Pyongyang has dismissed as "ridiculous" Seoul's hosting of an international nuclear summit next year, barely two days after the North's leader Kim Jong-il was conditionally invited to join 50 world leaders at the event in Seoul.

President Lee Myung-bak said on Monday he was ready to invite Kim to the summit in Seoul next March if Pyongyang agreed to renounce nuclear weapons, and apologised for two deadly attacks last year.

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"It is ridiculous that Seoul will hold a nuclear summit after it made its country the world's biggest nuclear war outpost and nuclear arsenal," the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a semi-official organ handling inter-Korean relations, said in a statement.

The statement was carried by the DPRK's official KCNA news agency late on Wednesday.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, having only signed a ceasefire to end the 1950-53 Korean  War. 

Pressure is building on the two sides to work out their differences at the negotiating table as a prelude to a possible resumption of international nuclear talks.

In the past few months, both Lee and Kim have said they are willing to meet, but analysts say a leaders' summit is unlikely this year.