GENEVA - North Korea has again warned Japan not to meddle in its denuclearisation issue, saying Tokyo has nothing to do with the North's recent summit agreements with South Korea and the United States, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday (June 27).

Mr Ju Yong Chol, a North Korean diplomat stationed in Geneva, said at a UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday that Japan should refrain from intervening in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, because it is not a signatory to the Panmunjom Declaration between the two Koreas or the North's summit agreement with the US.

According to Yonhap, the diplomat made the remarks after Japan's mission to Geneva urged North Korea to faithfully implement its summit agreements with the US, including its denuclearisation pledge, at the same conference.

The Japanese mission also stressed closer cooperation with South Korea and the US over the North's denuclearisation.

During the conference, Austria, Australia, Argentina and other countries repeatedly called for denuclearisation efforts by North Korea, but Mr Ju said those calls cannot be tolerated, citing his country's recent summit agreements.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a TV programme on June 16 that his country was ready to pay for the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspections of the North's nuclear programme to achieve its denuclearisation, as long as the issue of Japanese abductees in the North was resolved beforehand.

At that time, Pyongyang's media responded by saying that Japan should instead prioritise compensation linked to its imperial past and refrain from resorting to petty tricks.