Top Asian News 3:52 a.m. GMT

North Korea ignores US offer for talks, citing hostility

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday it will ignore a U.S. offer for talks unless it withdraws its hostile policy, after Washington reached out to Pyongyang in a bid to resume nuclear negotiations. The statement by Choe Son Hui, the first vice foreign minister, came hours before the U.S. and South Korean foreign and defense chiefs met in Seoul for their first joint talks in five years to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program. “What has been heard from the U.S. since the emergence of the new regime is only a lunatic theory of ‘threat from North Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization,’” Choe said, calling the offer for talks a “time-delaying trick.” He reiterated North Korea’s position that no “dialogue of any kind” can be possible unless the United States rolls back its hostility.