DPRK asks US to lift sanctions

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday asked the United States to lift "all unreasonable sanctions" against Pyongyang and urged Seoul to clarify its stance on improving inter-Korean relations, the official KCNA news agency reported Thursday.

"We have taken this stand because all 'sanctions' the US has imposed on the DPRK so far are based on the inveterate hostility and repugnancy towards it and Washington's hostile policy towards it," the policy department of the National Defense Commission (NDC) said in a statement.

It accused the United States of pushing DPRK-US relations to the "worst phase of confrontation" from the beginning of the year.

The United States should "make a bold decision to unconditionally stop all reckless hostile acts of creating the danger of war on the Korean Peninsula," the statement said.

It also warned Washington to roll back its hostile policy toward Pyongyang "if it does not want to suffer a war disaster."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the NDC issued another three-point statement asking South Korea to clarify whether it will persist in confrontation, whether it intends to escalate tensions on the peninsula and whether it will resort to "unification of social systems."

It also blamed Seoul for claiming inability to stop such confrontational "racket" as anti-DPRK leaflet drop.