The spokesperson for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued the following statement on Sunday:

The DPRK and the US held working-level negotiations in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct 5 after the preliminary contact on Oct 4 under an agreement between the two sides.

We approached the negotiations with expectations and optimism that the US side would think and act in a proper way as it had persistently requested for the opening of the negotiations by sending repeated signals that it was ready for dialogue based on a "new method" and "creative solution".

However, the trite stance shown by the delegates of the US side at the venue of the negotiations made us feel that our expectations were no better than an empty hope and rather increased a doubt as to whether the US truly has a stand to solve the issue through dialogue.

At the negotiations, the US side maintained its former stance, seemingly showing that it has brought no new package, but repeated equivocal insistence that consecutive and intensive negotiations are necessary, without presenting any signs of calculation and guarantee.

The US had actually made no preparations for the negotiations, but sought to meet its political goal of abusing the DPRK-US dialogue for its domestic political events on schedule.

So, the lead negotiator of the DPRK side held a press conference and clarified our principled stand on the negotiations.

However, the US is misleading the public, insisting that the press conference given by the DPRK delegation fell short of correctly reflecting the contents and spirit of the negotiations and that they had a wonderful discussion with the DPRK side.

The greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

The recent negotiations have made us think that the US has no political will to improve bilateral relations and that it is trying to abuse bilateral relations for gratifying its party interests.

The US is spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides intend to meet after two weeks. But as it has conceived nothing even after the passage of 99 days since the Panmunjom summit, it is most unlikely that it could produce a proposal that comes up to the expectations of the DPRK and the anticipation of the world in just a fortnight.

We have no intention to hold such sickening negotiations as what happened this time before the US takes a substantial step to completely and irreversibly abandon the hostile policy toward the DPRK, a policy that threatens the security of the country and hampers the rights to existence and development of its people.

We already made it clear that if the US came out again with the old scenario which has nothing to do with new calculation method, the dealings between the DPRK and the US might immediately come to an end.