Beijing: North Korea on August 30 took a U-turn and said it no longer has "interest or expectations" in new rounds of talks on its nuclear programme and has no other option but to increase its "nuclear deterrent force" for self-defence.

"This round of talks was nothing more than empty talks," an unidentified spokesman of the North Korean delegation told reporters at Beijing's airport, reading from a statement as the team left the Chinese capital for Pyongyang after a three-day six-way closed-door meeting to ease the 10-month-long stand- off between the US and North Korea.

"If the United States continues to demand we drop the nuclear programme first and ignores our appropriate proposals, we have no choice but to beef up our nuclear deterrent power," he said.

"We no longer have interest or expectations either for this kind of talks," he said in sharp contrast to US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs, James Kelly, who headed the American delegation in the talks, saying all parties had got off to "a productive start".

"We've had a nice visit to Beijing, a productive start," Kelly told reporters before leaving for the airport. "We've got a very long way to travel."

US has insisted on "the complete, verifiable and irreversible elimination" of North Korea's nuke programme.

Meanwhile China, reacting to North Korea calling the Beijing meeting as "empty talks", urged all the six countries involved to continue their discussions.

PTI