North Korea said on Wednesday it had rejected a South Korean proposal to hold a series of three summits to ease tensions on the peninsula.

The North’s powerful National Defence Commission (NDC) said the South, at a secret meeting in May, had proposed the meetings to start late in May at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

It said Seoul “begged” for the summits but stuck to its precondition for dialogue — that Pyongyang apologise for two deadly border incidents in 2010.

But the North said there would be no such summits as long as South Korea follows a hostile policy and “persistently” calls for the dismantling of its its nuclear programme and an apology over the two incidents.

It repeated a vow made on Monday that it would no longer engage with the current conservative government in Seoul.

Seoul accused Pyongyang of “distorting our real intention” and urged it to sit down for a dialogue in a “responsible” manner.

“It is very regrettable as such an attitude shown by North Korea will never help improve relations,” the South's unification ministry in charge of cross-border affairs said in a statement.

Cross-border relations have been icy for over a year, since the South accused the North of sinking one of its warships and imposed trade sanctions.

The North denies involvement in the sinking but shelled a South Korean border island last November, killing four people including two civilians.

Seoul says its neighbour should take responsibility for both incidents before any serious dialogue can resume.

The NDC, which is chaired by leader Kim Jong-Il, said the South had even tried to bribe North Korean officials to show “regret” for the border incidents by offering an envelope of cash.

In a statement on the official KCNA news agency, it said Seoul proposed a second summit in Pyongyang in August and a third on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in the South next March.

Pyongyang would work to promote “peace, reunification and stability” on the peninsula but would “no longer deal with” the current Seoul Government, it said.

“The fact that the North made public the confidential contacts with the South means that it has reached a final decision not to talk to the current government in the South,” said Kim Keun-Sik of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

Following leader Kim's trip to Beijing in May, “the North gained confidence that it can do without help from the South”, the academic told AFP.

China, the North's sole major ally and benefactor, is trying to revive six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear disarmament. But inter-Korean tensions are complicating the issue.

The South's President Lee Myung-Bak has enraged the North by linking major aid to nuclear disarmament, although he has repeatedly said he is willing in principle to hold a summit.

The North's Kim also reportedly expressed willingness to hold a summit in a message relayed by visiting former US President Jimmy Carter in April.

In its statement on Monday, the NDC reiterated threats of “physical action without any notice” to halt psychological warfare from the South.

The North has repeatedly threatened to open fire at sites used by South Korean activists to launch cross-border leaflets criticising Kim’s regime.

The ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said on Wednesday it was futile to pin any hope on Lee’s government.

“They are a group of hooligans bereft of elementary political sense, national character and human ethics and morality,” it said.