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N Korea to build more nukes

Pyongyang says no to 6-nation nuclear bomb talks

AFP, Seoul
North Korea said yesterday it had manufactured nuclear weapons to protect itself against a US attack and that it was suspending its participation in multilateral talks aimed at disman-tlingits atomic programmes.
In a dramatic rejection of the second administration of US President George W. Bush, North Korea said it would no longer engage in dialogue with the United States over its nuclear programs.
The North Korean foreign ministry statement carried by the official KCNA news agency also said the country would seek to strengthen its nuclear arsenal, accusing the United States of plotting to overthrow its government.
The statement was North Korea's first official response to what was widely seen as conciliatory gesture to Pyongyang from President Bush in his State of the Union addresslast week.
Three years ago Bush denounced the communist country as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq. This time he avoided inflammatory language and said Washington was working closely with its allies to resolve the nuclear standoff.
North Korea said late last year it would not consider returning to dia-
logue until Bush had mapped out his second administration's policy towardsit.
The statement was a clear rejection of Bush and his team and North Korea took special aim at US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who branded North Korea an "outpost of tyranny" during her confirmation hearing last month.
"The Bush administration termed the DPRK (North Korea), its dialogue partner, an 'outpost of tyranny,' putting into the shade its hostile policy, and totally rejected it. This deprived the DPRK of any justification to participate in the six-party talks," the statement said.
Pyongyang has boasted publicly in the past of possessing a nuclear deterrent and has vowed never to dismantle its atomic arsenal unless the United States drops its "hostile" policy towards the Stalinist country.
Washington believes North Korea possesses one or two crude bombs and may have reprocessed enough plutonium from spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex to produce enough plutonium for half-a-dozen more.
"The second-term Bush administration's intention to antagonize the DPRK and isolate and stifle it at any
cost has become quite clear," the statement said.
"Its nuclear weapons will remain nuclear deterrent for self-defence under any circumstances."
"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period ... ,"it said.
North Korea would also take "a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal" in order to protect its system, the statement said.
"The US disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK (North Korea) at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick.
"This compels us to take a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by the people in the DPRK."
The nuclear standoff erupted in October 2002 when the United States accused North Korea of operating a program based on highly enriched uranium, violating a 1994 arms control agreement. Pyongyang denied that charge but restarted a plutonium program.
North Korea attended three rounds of the six-nation talks, which also group China, South Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia. But it
shunned a fourth round set for last September, complaining of "hostile" US policies.
The communist state said previously that it would await the formation of Bush's foreign policy team before deciding on whether to return to six-party talks and the statement came as the United States and its allies stepped up diplomacy to relaunch a new round.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon left for Washington Thursday for talks with Rice.
In Tokyo, John Bolton, US undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, accused North Korea of continuing its weapons programme.
"The absence of progress in six-party talks means they are making further progress toward their increased capability" in weapons, he said.
He said Washington has not imposed a deadline for Pyongyang to return to the table.
Bolton, speaking hours before the announcement from Pyongyang, said the five nations in dialogue with North Korea were ready for new talks as soon as possible.