PYONGYANG, Feb. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday accused the United States of tarnishing its world image and shifting the responsibility for the stalled six-party talks onto Pyongyang.

    "The United States is now busy floating fictions of smuggling of fake cigarettes and smuggling of drugs in a bid to achieve a sinister purpose," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)said in a commentary.

    "It is a true nature peculiar to the United States to spread sheer lies and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and realize its attempt at aggression on their basis,"the commentary said.

    In September, the United States banned American institutions from doing business with Macau-based Banco Delta Asia over allegations it helped launder DPRK funds from trafficking drugs and counterfeit goods.

    A month later, it blacklisted eight DPRK companies for allegedly supporting Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons programs.

    U.S. law-enforcement agents have also arrested nearly 100 individuals for allegedly trafficking counterfeit 100-U.S. dollar bills, cigarettes and drugs into the United States and Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    In reaction, the DPRK demanded an end to the U.S. crackdown on its commercial activities before it returns to the six-party talks.

    The KCNA commentary said "what the US conservative hard-liners seek is to delay the six-party talks under any pretext, escalate the tension on the Korean Peninsula and thus draw water to its mill to seek its own political interests." Enditem