"The US reckless stance only pushes the DPRK (North Korea) to further increase its nuclear deterrent force," the spokesman said.

The report added the recently concluded six-party negotiations in Beijing were "not intended to find a negotiated solution to the issue but to achieve its ulterior aim, wasting time."

Washington's demands will merely prompt North Korea to take "more necessary steps with increased pace," the North Korean spokesman said.

Six-way talks held in Beijing last month to ease the nuclear standoff failed to resolve differences over the core US demand for the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs.

North Korea called the US demand "criminal" and said progress was impossible because of "the fundamental difference between the DPRK and the US in their stands."

The group -- the two Koreas, Japan, the United States, China and Russia -- agreed to hold a third round of talks in Beijing by the end of June.

North Korea and the United States have been locked in the impasse since Washington accused the Stalinist state in October 2002 of having a program to enrich uranium in defiance of a 1994 anti-nuclear pact.

The United States considers the 1994 deal ruptured and suspended fuel oil shipments to North Korea.

North Korea has denied having an enriched uranium program but admits it has plutonium bombs.

Pyongyang has sought security guarantees and economic aid in return for denuclearization while Washington has said insisted that a verifiable dismantling of the Stalinist state's nuclear program come first.

WAR.WIRE