North Korea rejected a proposal to resume stalled reconciliation talks with South Korea while Seoul denounced the communist regime July 13 for the shooting death of a tourist that heightened tension between the divided nations.

North Korea's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in a commentary that South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's proposal to restart bilateral talks was not even worth considering. It called Lee's proposal a "deceitful" tactic to avoid taking responsibility for strained ties.

The snub was another sign of strained relations between the Koreas, which intensified after a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist July 11 at a northern mountain resort.