(2nd LD) N. Korea renews claim to nuclear arms amid little action from U.S.

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead, ADDS analyst view, background, REPLACES KCNA quotes with English language report)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea vowed Monday to hold onto its nuclear
weapons until the United States removes "nuclear threats" against it, renewing
its tough position after similar statements drew little action from the new U.S.
administration.
Pyongyang has continued unleashing acerbic statements to justify its nuclear
drive since January, raising military tensions across the inter-Korean border.
Seoul and Washington have reacted calmly.
"The Lee Myung-bak group of traitors should clearly understand that the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is by no means an issue of 'dismantling
the north's nuclear weapons,'" a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean
People's Army said in an interview carried by the North's official Korean Central
News Agency.
"The DPRK will never 'dismantle its nuclear weapons' unless nukes in South Korea
are dismantled to remove the nuclear threat from the U.S.," the spokesman said.
DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
A similar nuclear warning was issued by the North's Foreign Ministry on Jan. 13.
Pyongyang claims that it has been forced to develop nuclear weapons in the face
of "nuclear threats" from the U.S. military stationed in South Korea.
Seoul officials say South Korea has no atomic weapons.
The U.S. military withdrew its nuclear arsenal from the South in the early 1990s,
following an inter-Korean denuclearization pact in 1992, but Washington has said
it will provide a nuclear umbrella for South Korea if it is attacked by the
North.
The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a deterrent
against possible aggression by the North. The 1950-53 war ended in a cease-fire,
not a peace treaty.
The North's military spokesman called for "nuclear disarmament" talks between
nuclear powers, in an apparent demand for bilateral negotiations between
Pyongyang and Washington. North Korea detonated its first atomic weapon in 2006.
"One should not forget that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can only be
actualized through the strict verification of the entire Korean Peninsula"
according to an agreement of the six-party talks, the military spokesman said.
In a landmark deal in 2005, North Korea agreed to terminate its nuclear weapons
program in return for economic and diplomatic incentives from South Korea, the
U.S., China, Japan and Russia. But the disabling process is now on hold due to
discord over how to verify the North's nuclear information.
Pyongyang hopes to start anew with the Obama administration after eight combative
years with George W. Bush.
Cha Do-hyeogn, a North Korea specialist with the Institute for National Security
Strategy, a state-run think tank in Seoul, said Pyongyang is sending another
message for dialogue to Obama.
"With this, North Korea is displaying its consistent position that it wants to
reduce South Korea's standing and directly talk with the U.S.," he said.
Cha also said North Korea appears to be increasingly irritated as its continuing
nuclear claims have drawn little action from the Obama administration.
Washington and Seoul officials have downplayed North Korea's recent warnings as
"rhetoric." Concerning Friday's threat to scrap all peace accords with Seoul,
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said, "Let me just say this type of, you
know, rhetoric is distinctly not helpful." Wood said the six-party talks will
continue.
"North Korea had wishful thinking about Obama in his first weeks in office. But
judging from Obama's remarks, North Korea has been in the outer area of his
policy attention, with the Middle East and Iran in the center," Cha said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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