Nuclear deterrent ready for use, says N Korea

Ambassador Ri Yong Ho told Reuters in an interview that North Korea would only use its capability in self-defense. Asked if North Korea had a nuclear bomb, he said: "What we are saying is, a nuclear deterrent capability."

North Korea has long hinted that it had a nuclear bomb. It said last month it was prepared to demonstrate the existence of its nuclear deterrent "when an appropriate time comes."

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But Thursday's comments appear to be the first time it has explicitly stated that it has a nuclear weapon ready to deploy.

Ri said the deterrent was made of plutonium, most of which was recently reprocessed but was extracted before a 1994 freeze on its nuclear weapons program under a pact with Washington. It was ready to use should the United States attack, he said.

In response, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli repeated the long-standing US position that, "we have no intention of attacking North Korea."

The latest crisis in North Korea-US relations erupted in October 2002 when US officials said the communist state was pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program that violated its international commitments.

In an apparent bid to defuse the crisis, Washington last month offered Pyongyang unspecified security assurances for the first time, in exchange for a complete, verifiable and irreversible end to its suspected weapons program.

Washington has ruled out a formal non-aggression treaty.

Meanwhile, the United States will offer North Korea a two-step security assurance in a bid to restart talks aimed at diffusing the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, a Japanese daily reported yesterday.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, quoting sources in Washington, said the United States would first present North Korea with a document guaranteeing its security for the duration of multilateral talks on the nuclear issue.