North Korea has said Japan should not bother to attend six-country nuclear talks because Tokyo is refusing to recognise the reclusive communist country as a nuclear weapons state.
"There is no need for Japan to participate in (the talks) as a local delegate because it is no more than a state of the US and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed of the results of the talks by Washington," North Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement today.
Japan's refusal to accept the North as a nuclear weapons state when the talks resume later this year proved they were "political imbeciles incapable of judging the trend of the situation", said the statement carried by the North's official Korea Central News Agency.
North Korea agreed on Tuesday to return to the talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States after snubbing them for a year in protest over a US crackdown on its international finances.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test on October 9th and is now referring to itself as "a responsible nuclear weapons state".
"It is unacceptable that North Korea returns to the six-party talks on the premise that it has become a nuclear weapons state," a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.