North Korea vows to keep nukes over US 'threat'

North Korea said it will not give up its nuclear weapons until after the US alters its “hostile policy” toward it's government and proves it does not pose an atomic threat to the wartime rival.

The cryptic statement from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry is the first to lay out North Korea’s nuclear stance since the last round of international talks on disarming the North in December.

Analysts say the statement also sends a strong signal that Pyongyang is keen to forge diplomatic relations with the next US administration.

Relations warmed under President Bill Clinton but went into a deep freeze when President George Bush took office with sharp words for the North.

Eight years later, Pyongyang appears eager to make amends, refraining from its customary New Year’s Day diatribe against the US and reportedly offering to send an envoy to Mr Obama’s January 20 inauguration.

In the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

However, it said Washington cannot demand that Pyongyang bare its nuclear arsenal without revealing, and removing, its own alleged nuclear weapons in South Korea.

Seoul and Washington deny having a secret atomic arsenal. “We don’t have nuclear weapons,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said.

But the US military does have some 28,000 troops in the South and holds regular war games with South Korean troops, exercises the North denounces as proof of US aggression.

“We would never show our nuclear weapons first – even in 100 years – unless the US hostile policy and nuclear threat to North Korea are terminated,” said the statement, monitored in Seoul.

The ministry also suggested that a change in policy could convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions.

“We won’t need atomic weapons when US nuclear threats are removed, and the US nuclear umbrella over South Korea is gone,” the statement said.