Seoul - North Korea made plain Saturday it will not recognise Japan as a participant in the next round of international talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.

The spokesman accused Japan of failing to fulfill its obligations within the six-party talks which also include The United States, South Korea, Russia and China.

The Tokyo government has been refusing to supply agreed economic and energy aid before there is a full investigation into what it says were abductions by North Korean agents of Japanese during the 1970s and 1980s.

North Korea is due to receive economic and energy aid in return for ending its nuclear programme. The latest round of talks is due to begin in Beijing next Monday.

During the talks, the US, South Korea and Japan will be seeking a written commitment by North Korea to allow inspections of, and samples to be taken from, its Yongbyon nuclear complex. (dpa)