North Korea nuclear claim ups stakes in stand-off with US

Sang-Hun Choe, Seoul

The statement dramatically raised the stakes in the two-year-old nuclear confrontation and posed a grave challenge to President George W Bush, who started his second term with a vow to end North Korea’s nuclear programme through six-nation talks.

“We have manufactured nukes for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration’s evermore 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.