North Korea called Thursday for a relaxation of US financial restrictions as a condition for the country's return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, warning it would take "hard-line" measures if pressed into a corner.
"If the United States truly wants the six-party talks to resume, the method is simple and the United States is well aware of that," a spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said, demanding Washington lift the financial restrictions.
"If the United States increases pressure while antagonizing us, we cannot but take super hard-line steps to safeguard our right to survive and sovereignty," the unnamed spokesman said in the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Negotiations on the North's nuclear weapons program have been stalled since last year.
