Rice: North Korea does not need nuclear weapons against us

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said North Korea had no reason to believe it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States.

North Korea today announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons and rejected moves to restart disarmament talks any time soon, saying it needs the armaments as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.

“The president of the United States said in South Korea that the United States has no intention to attack North Korea,” she said. “They have been told they can have multilateral security assurances if they will make the important decision to give up their nuclear weapons programme.”

“So there is really no reason for this, but we will examine where we go next,” Rice added, urging the North Koreans to reconsider and come back to the negotiating table.