Pyongyang has reportedly warned Washington that it will shun the next round of six-party talks unless the chief U.S. negotiator to the dialogue agrees to meet with the North to discuss U.S. financial sanctions against the Stalinist state.

Japan's Sankei Shimbun daily quoted Sunday a diplomatic source in New York as saying a senior North Korean diplomat at Pyongyang's permanent mission to the United Nations had told the U.S. that his country would not reappear at the nuclear talks if the sanctions issue were not discussed.

According to the paper, the diplomat demanded that chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill meet with North Korea’s vice foreign minister Kim Kye-kwan in Washington to parse the possible lifting of U.S.-imposed financial sanctions against the North.

The diplomat blasted the U.S. for undermining the supposedly trustful relationship between the two sides by Hill's refusal to accept Kim in Washington for such discussions.

Pyongyang also reportedly rejected Seoul’s proposal for an unofficial meeting between nuclear negotiators in Jeju for consultations prior to the resumption of the six-way talks.

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