North Korea will never give up nuclear weapons, says envoy to U.N.

NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) -- North Korea's envoy to the United Nations said the Kim Jong Un regime will never give up nuclear weapons, and such action would only occur when other countries, including the United States, agree to denuclearize.

The envoy said North Korea also would rule out any possibilities of resuming the six-party talks. Yonhap reported the envoy said Pyongyang has "not even considered" what terms and conditions should be discussed in the event talks are resumed.

The North Korean representative said he had reasons to believe the U.S. is escalating its hostile policy against North Korea and is not interested in resuming negotiations if North Korean denuclearization is the premise of a dialogue.

On March 23 North Korea condemned U.S. nuclear weapons policy and said President Obama's call for the dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear program is a backhanded move. North Korea's state-controlled media claimed the United States has 2,900 warheads in its possession and that Washington was violating the U.N. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

In response to the remarks made by the North Korean envoy, the U.S. State Department told Voice of America North Korea must immediately destroy all nuclear weapons and end all programs, in compliance with the U.N. Security Council Resolutions on North Korea.

On March 27 the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva passed a new human rights resolution that condemned North Korea's abysmal rights record – a move that drew outrage from a North Korean diplomat.

But despite North Korea's standoff with various organizations within the U.N., Pyongyang accepts medical aid from UNICEF, the U.N.'s Children's Fund, including vaccinations for a measles outbreak that occurred in July.

UNICEF spokesman Christopher de Bono told Voice of America Tuesday there has been no recent outbreak of measles in North Korea, denying a Voice of Russia/Sputnik International report of an epidemic last week.