"As long as there is no nuclear dismantlement in the South to remove the US nuclear threat, dismantlement to remove nuclear weapons in the DPRK (North Korea) won't be realised," a spokesman for the North's General Chiefs of Staff was quoted as saying.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which monitors media in the communist state, said the spokesman's statement was carried on state television.

The spokesman said denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula does not only mean disarmament of the North but should also include verification of alleged nuclear facilities in South Korea, Yonhap reported.

The foreign ministry in Pyongyang, staking out a tough position for the incoming US administration, took a similar stance last month.

It said it may not give up its atomic weaponry even if ties with Washington are established, until the US completely removes its nuclear threat.

A six-nation deal signed in February 2007 offers the North energy aid, normalised ties with Washington and Tokyo and a permanent peace pact if it dismantles its atomic plants and hands over all nuclear weapons and material.

But the disarmament talks are stalled by disagreements over how the North's declared nuclear activities should be verified.

The North has said it should have the right to verify that US nuclear weapons have been withdrawn from South Korea -- something which the US said happened in 1991.

The spokesman for the General Chiefs of Staff also called for disarmament talks to be held between nuclear powers, Yonhap said.

North Korea, which staged an atomic test in 2006, demands to be treated as a nuclear power but the US and South Korea refuse to give it this status.

The forum groups the two Koreas, China, Russia, the US and Japan.