North Korea Admits It Has Nuclear Weapons -Sources
By Arshad Mohammed and Brian Rhoads
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) told the United States it has nuclear weapons during talks in Beijing this week, Bush administration sources said on Thursday.
The development could dramatically increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in Asia because of the possibility that North Korea could use its weapons to threaten South Korea (news - web sites), Japan, China and other nations.
"They said what we always knew -- that they do have (nuclear) weapons. That doesn't shock us. We've been saying that. Now they said it," said one administration source who asked not to be named.
The source, who spoke on condition that he not be named, played down a media report that North Korea had threatened to test nuclear weapons, saying "they never used the word testing ... We're still translating but it's being overplayed a bit."
The admission came during talks among U.S., North Korean and Chinese officials in Beijing which the United States hoped might be a first step toward Pyongyang ending a nuclear weapons program that U.S. officials said it disclosed in October.
While U.S. officials declined to discuss the talks in detail, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said the United States would not be intimidated by "bellicose statements" or threats from Pyongyang, suggesting that they were contentious.
Powell said the United States wanted a diplomatic solution but he noted Washington had not taken any options off the table -- a diplomatic phrase meaning military action had not been ruled out -- and said it was looking for ways to "eliminate" the threat posed by any North Korean nuclear weapons program.
"The North Koreans should not leave the meetings in Beijing, now that they have come to a conclusion ... with the slightest impression that the United States and its partners will be intimidated by bellicose statements or by threats," Powell said in remarks to the U.S. Asia-Pacific Council.
"Strong views were presented. The North Koreans presented their point of view strongly, the Chinese did as well, as did the United States." he said. "As you know, we have not taken any options off the table but the president remains convinced ... that a peaceful solution can be found," he added.
"We must not allow the peninsula to become nuclear," Powell said. "North Korea must come to understand this. North Korea must also come to understand that we will not be threatened, we will not respond to threats."
"We look for a way forward that will eliminate the threat and put North Korea on a path to a better future, a better future that will provide a better life for (its) people," he added.
It was unclear whether U.S., Chinese and North Korean officials might meet on Friday. Powell said bilateral talks between China and the United States or between China and North Korea were possible but the three-way talks had concluded.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, however, appeared to leave open the possibility of three-way talks on Friday, saying this would be decided by the various delegations in Beijing on Friday morning.
North Korea wants a security guarantee from the United States, aid and diplomatic recognition. The United States wants the North to agree to scrap its nuclear program before it offers Pyongyang any incentives.
North Korea said earlier the United States should renounce its "hostile" intent before there could be discussions about dismantling the North's nuclear project and verification -- two key U.S. demands.
"The U.S. should show its political will to make a bold switchover in its hostile policy toward (North Korea)," the North's state news agency said in a report that analysts said came right from the top.
"This is the master key to making the talks fruitful."
It said Washington had used verification -- the hunt for weapons of mass destruction -- in Iraq (news - web sites) as a pretext to start the war that ousted President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
"The inspection and disarmament forced by the U.S. upon an independent state in violation of its sovereignty and its right to existence without any proper reason and ground are only aimed to justify and legalize aggression and war," it said.
Ties between Washington and Pyongyang had "hit rock-bottom" after President Bush (news - web sites) described the North last year as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, for trying to develop weapons of mass destruction, it said.
The United States has 37,000 troops on the divided Korean peninsula, most of them near the world's most heavily militarized border, the Cold War's last flashpoint.
