SEOUL, Aug 16: North Korea on Monday ruled out attending working-level talks on its suspected nuclear arms programmes and questioned the entire negotiating process, blaming hostile U.S. policy for Pyongyang's tougher stance.

Pyongyang has in the past raised the rhetorical volume before talks or before making a concession. U.S. and South Korean officials attributed these comments to pre-talk bluster, and said they planned for discussions to go ahead as planned before the end of September.

"The U.S. has destroyed itself the foundation for the talks, making it impossible for the DPRK to go to the forthcoming meeting of the working group," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in comments published by the official KCNA news agency. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Now that the process of the six-party talks is retracting from the desired direction due to the U.S. attitude and nothing can be expected from the next round of the talks, it is clear such talks for the form's sake would be helpful to no one," the spokesman said.

Negotiators had sought to hold the working-level talks last week. But when they failed to take place leading diplomats suggested North Korea could be seeking to drag out the process as the U.S. presidential election in November approaches. -Reuters