North Korea rejects US dialogue offer as 'facade'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has condemned a US offer of dialogue as a "facade" and accused the Joe Biden administration of continuing a hostile policy against his nuclear-armed country.

Under the new administration, "the US military threat and hostile policy against us have not changed at all but have become more cunning", he said on Thursday in a lengthy address to the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's one-party parliament.

He also expressed a willingness to restore the severed inter-Korean hotline starting October.

Talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been largely at a standstill since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between Kim and then-president Donald Trump over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return.

In recent months, the United States has repeatedly offered to meet North Korean representatives anywhere, at any time, without preconditions, while saying it will pursue denuclearisation.

READ MORE: North Korea tests new hypersonic missile

Hypersonic missile test

But Kim condemned the declarations as "nothing more than a facade to mask their deception and hostile acts and an extension of hostile policy from past administrations", the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.

Kim's speech comes after the North this week tested what it said was a hypersonic gliding missile, and earlier this month announced it had successfully fired a long-range cruise missile.

The tests are the latest advances in its weapons development programmes, which have seen it subject to multiple rounds of international sanctions.

US says still ready for talks

The United States said it bears "no hostile intent" towards North Korea and remains open to the idea of negotiations. 

"The United States harbors no hostile intent toward the DPRK," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

"Our policy calls for a calibrated, practical approach that seeks serious and sustained diplomacy with the DPRK to make tangible progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies, and our deployed forces."

UNSC meeting

The UN Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss the situation in North Korea, diplomats said after Pyongyang said it tested a new hypersonic gliding missile.

The meeting –– organised at the request of the United States, Britain and France –– is expected to take place Thursday morning behind closed doors, a diplomat told AFP news agency, without saying if the talks were expected to result in the adoption of a joint statement.

READ MORE: Why is North Korea’s nuclear programme such a threat?