North Korea nuclear claim ups stakes in stand-off with US
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.
The claim could not be independently verified.
North Korea expelled the last UN nuclear monitors in late 2002. It is not known to have tested an atomic bomb, although international officials have long suspected it has one or two nuclear weapons.
The CIA has estimated with a highly-enriched uranium weapons programme and the use of sophisticated high-speed centrifuges, North Korea could be making more.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the North had no reason to believe the US would attack.
“The North Koreans have been told by the president of the US that the US has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea,” Ms Rice said 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.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the statement from North Korea was “rhetoric we’ve heard before”.
“We remain committed to the six-party talks. We remain committed to a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue with regards to North Korea,” he said.
