North Korea suspends talks with South Korea scheduled for Wednesday

Washington: North Korea said on Wednesday it had no choice but to suspend high-level talks with South Korea scheduled for later in the day due to US-South Korean military exercises that went against the trend of warming North-South ties.

The meeting was due to focus on plans to implement a declaration that emerged from an April 27 inter-Korea summit, including promises to formally end the Korean War and pursue "complete denuclearisation", the South`s unification ministry, which handles ties with the North, said on Tuesday.

North Korea`s official Korean Central News Agency called joint US-South Korean military exercises a "provocation" and said Pyongyang had no choice but to suspend the talks.