North Korea rejected President Lee Myung-bak's proposal to seek a "grand bargain" on its nuclear program, Wednesday, saying Seoul should discard confrontational policies first to talk about denuclearization.

"They are seriously mistaken if they calculate the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would accept the ridiculous proposal for the normalization of relations with someone and for (a) sort of economic aid," the North's state-run news agency, the KCNA, said in an English-version commentary. DPRK is the North's official name.

The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula should be settled between the DPRK and the United States as it is a product of Washington's hostility toward Pyongyang, it said.

President Lee is "making much fuss, trumpeting about a grand bargain while failing to say anything to the United States. It is evident that he seeks to meddle and stand in the way of settling the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S.," said the KCNA.

"The South Korean chief executive and his team of advisors had better have a midday nap under the nuclear umbrella provided by the U.S. rather than running helter-skelter, unable to sound out its master, much less knowing how the world moves."

A spokesman of North Korea's Foreign Ministry said that the prerequisite to global denuclearization is the United States and other heavy possessors of nuclear weapons carrying out their own disarmament and abolition, according to Yonhap News.

The spokesman was quoted as saying that North Korea has no choice but to stick to its nuclear deterrent to safeguard regional peace and security as well as its national interest in the face of nuclear threats from the U.S.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr