North Korea reconfirms possession of nuclear weapons

North Korea reconfirmed today that it has nuclear weapons and demanded the United States give it “nuclear cooperation” instead of seeking to disarm it.

The announcement risked escalating tensions in the prolonged stand-off over the North’s nuclear programme, clouding the prospect of resumption of six-nation talks on the dispute.

“We have built nuclear weapons for no other purpose than to counter US nuclear threats,” said a spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency.

It’s rare for North Korea to mention its nuclear capabilities in such an explicit manner. The communist state usually refers to its nuclear arsenal as its “nuclear deterrent force".

North Korea first declared last year that it has nuclear weapons, although the claim could not be confirmed independently.

“If the US is truly interested in finding a realistic way of resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, it would be wise for it to come out on the path of nuclear cooperation with us” even though the North is not currently a member of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, he said.

The spokesman was apparently referring to a recent nuclear deal between the United States and India, under which the U.S. will provide India with nuclear know-how and atomic fuel, even though New Delhi has not signed the global anti-nuclear weapons treaty.

North Korea has condemned the US for giving India “preferential” treatment by formally recognising it as a nuclear power.

North Korea backed out of the NPT in early 2003, right after the outbreak of the nuclear crisis in late 2002.

Six-nation talks have been stalled since November over a dispute surrounding financial restrictions that the US imposed on North Korea for its alleged currency counterfeiting and money laundering.

The talks’ participants are China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the US.

Pyongyang says it won’t return to the negotiating table unless the restrictions are lifted. Washington demands the North come to the talks without preconditions, saying the two issues are separate.

The North’s spokesman said his country has shown its “maximum flexibility” to resolve the financial dispute, proposing possible solutions when the two countries held a working-level meeting in New York earlier this month. The meeting produced no breakthrough.

“The Bush administration talks about six-party talks, but it actually is paying no attention to the talks,” he said.

The US State Department today urged North Korea to return to the negotiations “at the earliest possible date” and engage in the talks in a serious manner.

“The president, the secretary of state and others have made it very clear that the United States has no plans to invade or attack North Korea,” spokesman Sean McCormack said.

McCormack confirmed South Korea’s new nuclear envoy, Chun Young-woo, would hold talks in Washington later in the week. He called it an introductory visit and said it did not mean negotiations were about to be resumed.

The North’s spokesman also disputed the recently announced US national security report, which among other things, reaffirmed US President George Bush’s strike-first policy against terrorists and enemy nations and said North Korea poses a serious nuclear proliferation challenge.

“Through this document, the Bush administration declared to the world that it is a group of war fanatics,” he said.

He warned that the North also has the right to launch a pre-emptive strike, warning that it will strengthen its war footing ahead of South Korea-US military exercises scheduled to begin this weekend.

“Our strong revolutionary might put in place all measures to counter a possible U.S. pre-emptive strike,” a spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency. “A pre-emptive strike is never the monopoly of the United States.”

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington, declined to comment today.