The North Korean ambassador to the United Nations over the weekend dismissed the possibility of Pyongyang resuming talks with the United States and South Korea in the near future, accusing Washington of preventing his participation in a meeting on the communist regime’s human rights.

“For now, there is no chance of a talk between North Korea and the U.S.,” Ja Song-nam, the North Korean envoy to the U.N., told Yonhap while entering the U.N. headquarters in New York. He also ruled out the possibility of Pyongyang holding talks with Seoul. Ja was on his way to meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon along with North Korean foreign minister Ri Su-yong.

Asked whether Ri attempted to meet U.S. officials during his visit to New York, Ja said that Ri had tried, but that U.S. officials had rejected his offer.

“(He had) hoped to attend the meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry but (the offer) was rejected,” Ja said, adding that Ri would leave New York without holding talks with officials from the U.S. or South Korea.

The remark poured cold water on hopes that Ri could meet U.S. or South Korean officials while in New York. Ri is the first top Pyongyang official in 15 years to attend the annual U.N. meeting.

During an address to the U.N. General Assembly, Ri claimed that “hostile policy” by the U.S. had prompted Pyongyang to develop nuclear weapons programs.

“The nuclear deterrent of the DPRK is not intended to threaten or attack others. Neither is it a bargaining chip to be exchange for something else,” Ri said.

“The nuclear issue will be resolved if and when the threat to our sovereignty and right to life is removed in substance, along with the termination of the U.S.’ hostile policy against the DPRK,” he said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The North Korean foreign minister said his country is willing to cooperate with the U.N. and other international organizations on human rights. But Ri accused the U.S. of “politically abusing” human rights issues.

In February, a U.N. commission of inquiry concluded there was evidence of crimes against humanity by North Korea’s authoritarian government. Washington last week called on Pyongyang to eliminate its “evil system” of prison camps.

“The government of the DPRK is willing to promote human rights dialogue and cooperation on an equal footing with other countries which are not hostile to it,” Ri said.

Meanwhile, he denounced South Korea’s unification road map as an “unrealistic and fictitious proposal,” saying that Seoul must have “copied the formula of other countries.”

South Korean President Park Geun-hye presented her vision of a unified Korea during her speech at the U.N. General Assembly last week.

The Park administration plans to expand humanitarian aid and infrastructure-building as part of efforts to promote integration between the two Koreas.

At the U.N., Park called for international support to bring peace to the divided Korean Peninsula, and urged Pyongyang to improve its poor human rights conditions and end its nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea slammed Park’s U.N. speech on human rights and claimed that it has no human rights problems whatsoever.

“Park Geun-hye (is) the primary root cause of deteriorating the North-South relations and fostering mistrust and confrontation,” the North’s National Defense Commission said in an English-language statement, carried by the communist regime’s Korean Central News Agency.

“Her disposition was fully revealed through the unspeakable invectives she let loose against the DPRK as she pleased during her recent trip to the U.S., lashing all Koreans into fury,” it said.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)