North Korea insists on 'hostile policy' roll back, peace treaty with US

North Korea has reiterated its call for the United States to roll back what it described as a 'hostile policy' towards Pyongyang.

The country also called for negotiations of a peace treaty between both sides to bring about long-lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea's ambassador to Malaysia, Kang Chol said the matter of concluding the peace treaty to replace the Korean armistice agreement should be given priority.

"And if we solve this problem, other issues can be easily resolved. This is our stand.

"Unless the US rolls back its hostile policy and conclude a peace treaty with us, we can't suspend our nuclear weapons programme," he said in an interview with Bernama.

US President Barack Obama recently said that Washington was open for talks that could ease sanctions on North Korea provided Pyongyang showed its seriousness about ditching its nuclear weapons programme.

The envoy pointed out that comparing the North Korea situation with Iran, which reached a deal with major powers in July on curbing its nuclear programme, was not quite right.

"We're a nuclear state, we already have access to nuclear weapons but Iran is not a nuclear state, so it's quite different," he said.

Kang Chol also stressed the need for any future agreement involving his country on the nuclear issue to be strictly adhered to, unlike what Pyongyang experienced in the past.

The ambassador said if the US continued to shun the call by Pyongyang for a peace treaty, it would only signal that Washington had no intention to roll back its hostile policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.