Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

World

North Korea rejects South Korea's offer to resolve rising nuclear tension through dialogue

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • 19a2799e-South Korea Koreas Tension
    Image 1 of 3

    South Korean members of the Abductees Family Association with their national flags hold an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 14, 2013. As the world watches to see what North Korea's next move will be in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship with the United States, residents of its capital aren't hunkering down in bunkers and preparing for the worst. Instead, they are out on the streets en masse getting ready for the birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung - the biggest holiday of the year. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) (The Associated Press)

  • 0c4882a4-South Korea Koreas Tension
    Image 2 of 3

    South Korean members of the Abductees Family Association attend an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul, South Korea Sunday, April 14, 2013. As the world watches to see what North Korea's next move will be in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship with the United States, residents of its capital aren't hunkering down in bunkers and preparing for the worst. Instead, they are out on the streets en masse getting ready for the birthday of national founder Kim Il Sung - the biggest holiday of the year. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) (The Associated Press)

  • 2eb1767e-North Korea
    Image 3 of 3

    Runners rest inside Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea on Sunday, April 14, 2013. North Korea hosted the 26th Mangyongdae Prize Marathon to mark the upcoming April 15, 2013 birthday of the late leader Kim Il Sung. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) (The Associated Press)

PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea on Sunday rebuffed a South Korean proposal to resolve rising tensions through dialogue, dismissing it as a "crafty trick" by its rival.

Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula for weeks, with Pyongyang threatening to attack Seoul and Washington for conducting joint military drills and for supporting U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for a February nuclear test.

While the threats are largely seen as rhetoric, U.S. and South Korean officials have said they believe North Korea may test-fire a mid-range missile designed to reach the U.S. territory of Guam.

Pyongyang also took a direct shot at Seoul by pulling more than 50,000 North Korean workers from their joint factory park in the border city of Kaesong and denying South Koreans access to the complex just north of the Demilitarized Zone.

The move has brought the South Korean-run factories to a standstill, threatening a shutdown of the last joint project left between the two Koreas.

Last Thursday, Seoul pressed Pyongyang to discuss restarting operations at the factory park. South Korean President Park Geun-hye has promoted seeking peace with North Korea, a change in policy from the hard-line stance of her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.

But on Sunday, North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Pyongyang has no intention of talking with Seoul unless it abandons its confrontational posture.

South Korea's presidential Blue House said North Korea's rebuttal of its dialogue offer was "very regrettable." A Blue House statement urged North Korea to take responsible measures to help relieve difficulties facing South Koreans working at the joint factory park.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S. keeps about 28,500 troops in South Korea to help deter potential aggression by the North.

___

Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report from Seoul, South Korea.