SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula in a New Year’s message today, brightening the prospect that Pyongyang may rejoin the stalled international talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs. “It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations,” the message said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Pyongyang’s Jan. 1 statement, examined annually for clues to the regime’s policies for the coming year, also said it will strive to develop good relations and friendship with other countries, while calling for an end to hostile relations with the United States.
The North has long called for Washington to end hostility toward the regime and said it developed nuclear weapons to deter a U.S. attack.