N. Korea Announces It Has Nuclear Weapons

 

By SANG-HUN CHOE, Associated Press Writer

 

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) on Thursday announced for the first time that it has nuclear arms and rejected moves to restart disarmament talks anytime soon, saying it needs the weapons as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.

 

The communist state's pronouncement dramatically raised the stakes in the two-year-old nuclear confrontation and posed a grave challenge to President Bush (news - web sites), who started his second term with a vow to end North Korea's nuclear program through six-nation talks.

 

"We ... have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North)," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

 

The claim could not be independently verified. North Korea expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors in late 2002 and has never tested a nuclear bomb, although international officials have long suspected it has one or two nuclear bombs and enough fuel for several more.

 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said North Korea should return to disarmament talks and avoid a path toward further international isolation. She said the world "has given them a way out and we hope they will take that way out."

 

"The North Koreans have been told by the president of the United States that the United States has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea," Rice told a news conference in Luxembourg. "There is a path for the North Koreans that would put them in a more reasonable relationship with the rest of the world."

 

Previously, North Korea had reportedly told U.S. negotiators in private talks that it had nuclear weapons and might test one of them. The North's U.N. envoy said last year that the country had "weaponized" plutonium from its pool of 8,000 nuclear spent fuel rods. Those rods contained enough plutonium for several bombs.

 

But Thursday's statement was North Korea's first public acknowledgment that it has nuclear weapons.

 

North Korea's "nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the ministry said. It said Washington's alleged attempt to topple the North's regime "compels us to take a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by its people."

 

Since 2003, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks in Beijing aimed at persuading the North to abandon nuclear weapons development in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. No significant progress has been made.

 

A fourth round scheduled for last September was canceled when North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a "hostile" U.S. policy.

 

South Korea (news - web sites) said Thursday the North's decision to stay away from talks was "seriously regrettable." Foreign Ministry spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said "we again declare our stance that we will never tolerate North Korea possessing nuclear weapons."

 

In recent weeks, hopes had risen that North Korea might return to the six-nation talks, especially after Bush refrained from any direct criticism of North Korea when he started his second term last month.

 

On Thursday, North Korea said it decided not to rejoin such talks any time soon after studying Bush's inaugural and State of the Union speeches and after Rice labeled North Korea one of the "outposts of tyranny."

 

"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks and there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks," the ministry said.

 

Still, North Korea said it retained its "principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged."

 

Such a comment has widely been interpreted as North Korea's negotiating tactic to get more economic and diplomatic concessions from the United States before joining any crucial talks.

 

In Vienna, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said that "North Korea remains our single highest priority."

 

"We know they have raw materials to build nuclear weapons. We also know that they have a delivery system and they've expressed their intentions to have a nuclear arsenal," spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.

 

In Japan, the top government spokesman said he wanted to confirm the North's intentions.

 

"They have used this sort of phrasing every so often. They didn't say anything particularly new," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a regular news conference.

 

For months, North Korea has lashed out at what it calls U.S. attempts to demolish the regime of leader Kim Jong Il and meddle in the human rights situation in the North. Washington has said it wants to resolve the nuclear talks through dialogue.

 

In his Jan. 20 inaugural speech, Bush vowed that his new administration would not shrink from "the great objective of ending tyranny" around the globe.

 

In his State of the Union address earlier this month, Bush only mentioned North Korea once, saying Washington was "working closely with governments in Asia to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions."

 

Bush's tone was in stark contrast to three years ago, when he branded North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq (news - web sites), raising hopes of a positive response from North Korea.

 

The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials accused North Korea of running a secret uranium-enrichment program in violation of international treaties. Washington and its allies cut off free fuel oil shipments for the impoverished country under a 1994 deal with the United States.

 

North Korea retaliated by quitting the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in early 2003 and restarting its plutonium-based nuclear weapons program, which had been frozen under the 1994 agreement.

 

 

 

Reality? Or just trying to bilk us for $$$?

Well they know if they are invaded they will be rebuilt to something better than what they are now.

 

 

I am sure after the Iraq debacle and mis-use of intelligence that Bush pulled the intelligence act together and knows if they have nukes or not in NK.

Wow, that's breaking news......

 

:plain

Wow, that's breaking news......

 

:plain

681924[/snapback]

Well, this is the first official word that the DPRK actually has nukes, since all inspectors that were in the country were expelled in 2002, and haven't returned since.

 

The problem now is that they are trying to pull away from the multi-national disarmament talks.

I say we let China and Russia nuke their asses and call it a day.

Yes, but how many times can they destroy the world? I'm pretty sure the US can destroy it about 10 times.

Yes, but how many times can they destroy the world? I'm pretty sure the US can destroy it about 10 times.

682049[/snapback]

More like 100.

 

And the black market gives many smaller countries an outlet to "weapons of mass destruction." I guarantee that they didn't exactly build from the ground up on this one.

 

Either way, why am I not worried?

 

 

For now.. :plain

In other axis of evil news Iran's moderate party said the US will encounter hell if it invades while moving closer to the hard-liners. Anyone here think a ground invasion is nigh?

In other axis of evil news Iran's moderate party said the US will encounter hell if it invades while moving closer to the hard-liners. Anyone here think a ground invasion is nigh?

682066[/snapback]

Oh, let the fun begin and the joy cometh nearer.

 

I think the world has collectively been watching way too much Miami Vice.

 

:whistle

In other axis of evil news Iran's moderate party said the US will encounter hell if it invades while moving closer to the hard-liners.? Anyone here think a ground invasion is nigh?

682066[/snapback]

Oh, let the fun begin and the joy cometh nearer.

 

I think the world has collectively been watching way too much Miami Vice.

 

:whistle

682078[/snapback]

please expound

They can't have more than a few small ones though. 682018[/snapback]

 

How small? Small enough to smuggle through our porous borders and place in the middle of Manhattan?

"Now I will bring chaos to the world."

"Chaos is a friend of mine"

Their nukes would only be a threat if they sold them to the right terrorist organization. However, they feel that they need them to defend from our "imminent invasion" of their country, so they will probably keep most of them.

 

They're just desperate.

Their nukes would only be a threat if they sold them to the right terrorist organization. However, they feel that they need them to defend from our "imminent invasion" of their country, so they will probably keep most of them.

 

They're just desperate.

682134[/snapback]

 

Its all about the money. DPRK is in such a poor economic state that they need world attention. they basically need to threaten the world community into negotiating somehting with them that will bring them aid. The money they can get from the UN or what not is much more than what they can sell those nukes for to a terrorist group.

I agree with Fritz :lol

 

 

And have them send us the food too.

They are stepping deeper and deeper into it....

 

Desperate moves by a failing regime.

 

North Korea faces isolation after talks bombshell, US rejects direct talks

 

Fri Feb 11, 4:01 PM ET Asia - AFP

 

SEOUL (AFP) - Defiant North Korea (news - web sites) faced deepening international isolation after it torpedoed talks to resolve a standoff over its nuclear weapons while vowing to build more atomic bombs.

 

But, as world powers urged Pyongyang to reverse its stand, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites) said the Stalinist country could return to the six-country talks if Washington changed its "hostile" policy and engaged Pyongyang in direct talks.

 

 

"We will come forward if the causes and conditions are met for us to attend six-party talks," Han Song-Ryol told South Korea (news - web sites)'s Hankyoreh newspaper in an interview published Friday.

 

 

Failure by Washington to have direct dialogue with North Korea "means the United States would not recognize us but aims to destroy our regime," he said.

 

 

The United States Friday immediately rejected North Korea's call for one-to-one negotiations, saying the Korean peninsula's nuclear crisis was a regional issue rather than a dispute between Pyongyang and Washington.

 

 

"There's plenty of opportunity for North Korea to speak directly with us in the context of the six-party talks, and there has been in the past, as well," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

 

 

Separately, McClellan said that US Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon had "reaffirmed our shared view that North Korea must end its nuclear weapons program" during a private meeting.

 

 

"All parties in the region recognize that they have a stake in North Korea ending its nuclear weapons program," said McClellan. "The six-party talks are the way to resolve this matter in a peaceful and diplomatic way."

 

 

Pressed on why Washington did not want to hold direct talks with Pyongyang, McClellan said North Korea had violated a 1994 deal meant to end its nuclear weapons programs.

 

 

The United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks with Pyongyang since August 2003 with a view to lowering tensions and persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang boycotted a fourth round of talks in September.

 

 

North Korea threw cold water on the diplomacy and raised tension in the two-year-old nuclear standoff by indefinitely suspending its participation in talks on Thursday and claiming in a statement that it possessed nuclear weapons.

 

 

Washington said North Korea was heading down the road of more international isolation by pulling out of the dialogue. It was joined by other nations in appealing to North Korea to change its stance.

 

 

Japan, Russia and China expressed hope for a resumption of talks while South Korea, the United Nations, the European Union (news - web sites) and major European nations said North Korea should reconsider its boycott.

 

 

The EU's current presidency Luxembourg Friday warned Pyongyang that the bloc would not build bilateral ties with North Korea until it fulfilled its international nuclear obligations.

 

 

Russia said later Friday that negotiations over the standoff were continuing despite Pyongyang's announcement.

 

 

"The consultations over North Korea never stopped, and are continuing on a normal basis," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

 

 

"International contacts between all of the participants of the negotiations are continuing," he said.

 

 

 

 

 

Lavrov did not explain where, or between whom, the talks were taking place.

 

Australia, a key intermediary in efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, suggested Friday that Pyongyang was bluffing with its threats to use its atomic arsenal.

 

But Prime Minister John Howard said the situation nevertheless remained "quite dangerous" and he urged North Korea not to pull out of the disarmament talks.

 

Howard said in a television interview the North Korean statement on Thursday was "disconcerting" and "a reminder of the kind of country that we're dealing with".

 

But he added: "There's an element of bluff, I'm sure. There's an element of exaggeration."

 

The North Korean foreign ministry statement on Thursday was the isolated regime's answer to recent US policy statements on the country including US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s State of the Union address last week.

 

In the address Bush was careful not to repeat his denunciation of North Korea three years ago as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq (news - web sites).

 

North Korea said though that it had seen no evidence of a change in US policy and rejected four more years of stalemate.

 

Pyongyang's boast about possessing nuclear weapons is impossible to verify but conforms with Washington's assessment that North Korea has developed one or two crude bombs and may have reprocessed enough plutonium for half-a-dozen more, from spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

 

North Korea said in a foreign ministry statement as early as October 2003 that it possessed a nuclear deterrent.

 

The nuclear standoff erupted in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of operating a program based on highly enriched uranium, violating a 1994 arms control agreement. Pyongyang denied that charge but restarted a plutonium programme.