North Korea Rules out Talks with South Korea Again

North Korea reiterated on June 9 that there is no room for dialogue with South Korea, the latest sign of a deadlock over the North's two deadly attacks on South Korea last year.
"Will there be any room for dialogue between the North and South?" the Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, said in a commentary carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Tensions have persisted between the two rival Koreas since March last year when the North torpedoed a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors. The North also shelled a border island in November, killing two soldiers and two civilians.
North Korea has rejected Seoul's long-standing demand that Pyongyang take responsibility for the attacks, keeping the two sides from moving their relations forward for more than a year.
Officials of the two Koreas held secret inter-Korean meetings in May to break the impasse and allegedly lay the groundwork for possible summit talks, but the talks collapsed.
The North recently vowed not to deal with South Korea any longer and to take "retaliatory military actions" against the South for using photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as targets for military shooting practice.
Kim is the subject of a massive cult of personality in North Korea, along with his late father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung.
The inter-Korean ties have worsened since 2008 when a conservative government took power in Seoul with a hard-line policy toward Pyongyang