The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Tuesday it had no interest in following Iran down the path of nuclear dialogue, insisting it was already a nuclear weapons state and therefore beyond any logical comparison with Teheran.

One week after the historic deal that cleared a path to lift sanctions crippling Iran's economy in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, Pyongyang rejected any suggestion that it might follow suit.

The DPRK "is not interested at all in the dialogue to discuss the issue of making it freeze or dismantle its nukes unilaterally," its Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"It is illogical to compare Iran's nuclear agreement with the situation of (the DPRK), which is exposed to constant provocative military hostile acts and the biggest nuclear threat of the US," the spokesman said.

The statement was Pyongyang's first official response to the Iranian nuclear deal.

The deal reached with Iran was touted by some as a possible blueprint for eventual negotiations with the DPRK, with US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman saying she hoped it would give Pyongyang "second thoughts" about the nuclear path it was pursuing.

But the DPRK's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the two situations were "quite different".

The DPRK "is a nuclear weapons state both in name and reality and it has interests as a nuclear weapons state", he said.

The DPRK staged three successful nuclear tests, in 2006, 2009 and 2013, according to previous media reports.

The Six-Party Talks to curb its nuclear development - involving the DRPK, the Republic of Korea, the US, China, Russia and Japan - have been in limbo since Pyongyang stormed out in 2009.

AFP - AP - Reuters

(China Daily 07/22/2015 page11)