DPRK urges US to accept proposal of "reward for freeze"

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has urged the United States to accept its proposal of reward for nuclear freeze, the official Minju Joson newspaper said Tuesday.

The newspaper said in a commentary that the DPRK has no objection to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"But the key to it is for the United States to abandon its hostile policy towards the DPRK and take goodwill measures to convince the DPRK of this," it said.

"Whether the United States is ready to accept our proposal of 'reward for freeze' or not is the touchstone showing whether it truly has the intention to solve the nuclear issue or not," the commentary said.

It urged the United States to lift economic sanctions and blockades against the DPRK and remove it from the list of "sponsors of terrorism."

"If the United States is not interested in the proposal for 'reward for freeze,' the two sides may go their own ways. The United States should not dream of freeze without reward," the commentary added.

In a July commentary published in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the DPRK urged the United States to provide the countrywith two million kilowatts of electricity in energy aid.

The third round of the six-nation talks in Beijing in June ended with no major breakthroughs toward freezing Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. The talks involved the United States, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the DPRK.

At the talks, the DPRK offered to freeze its nuclear program inexchange for energy, the lifting of US economic sanctions and removal of its name from Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Earlier, Washington had demanded an unconditional end to the DPRK's nuclear programs.