N.Korea denies Syria nuke link

BEIJING, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan Tuesday dismissed those who say his country has nuclear ties with Syria as “lunatics,” a report said.

Speaking in Beijing, where he arrived for the six-party talks on his country’s denuclearization, Kim said, “Lunatics have created these rumors about a nuclear deal between us and Syria," Yonhap news agency reported. Kim’s denial was a repetition of North Korea’s earlier denial that it is helping Syria with a secret atomic weapons program, the report said.

The North Korean official is in China for four days of talks starting Thursday among the six nations involved in the North’s denuclearization. Other nations in the talks are South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

Kim said if no agreement was reached during the talks, the entire process could stop, the report said.

"Denuclearization will continue if we reach (an) agreement on the steps we have achieved so far," Kim was quoted as saying. "And this is a very important meeting where things will return to the starting point if no agreement is produced."

North Korea has already shut down its main nuclear facility and the next step in the process involves disabling all of its nuclear facilities which have been surveyed by a team of international experts.