North Korea has accused the US of using food as a weapon to get "political concessions" in talks aimed at working out a durable peace for the Korean peninsula.But the famine-stricken Stalinist North yesterday kept the door open for a continued presence in four-way talks with the US, South Korea and China, saying it "depends entirely" on how US policies change."Whether talks for a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula are opened or not depends entirely on how the US rectifies its policy toward the DPRK (North Korea)," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in Pyongyang. "We will watch the future behaviour of the United States."The statement was the North's first official reaction since the second round of preliminary meetings ended with no agreement in New York last Friday, dimming the prospects for the full peace talks.The diplomatic tussle was further complicated yesterday with a report by a Japanese television station that a US military satellite has confirmed North Korea's deployment of its Nodong-1 missile, capable of reaching part of Japan.The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) said, quoting Japanese and US military and intelligence sources, that the missile has been deployed in the north-west of the Stalinist state.Based on the Soviet Scud missile, the Nodong-1 can hit targets more than 1,000 km away and could be fitted with nuclear or chemical warheads. It is unclear if North Korea has nuclear arms.It is the first time the deployment of the missile with a real warhead has been confirmed, the network said, and two US reconnaissance planes have been sent to Japan.US and South Korean officials blamed the collapse of the New York talks on Pyongyang's demands for large food aid and insistence on discussing the 37,000 US troops stationed in the South. North Korea wants US troops withdrawn and economic sanctions eased.The Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman charged that the US ignored the North's "fundamental issues, to our regret".North Korea's reclusive leader, Mr Kim Jong-Il, was recommended as general secretary of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, at a provincial party conference, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported early this morning.A resolution recommending that Mr Kim be made party general secretary was unanimously adopted at the conference held in Phyongsong city yesterday, KCNA said in a report monitored in Hong Kong. The move paves the way for Mr Kim (55) to take over his late father's official posts of state president and party general secretary.Mr Kim, who took over de facto power after his father's death in 1994, has already assumed the posts of chairman of the National Defence Commission and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.