N. Korea renews claim to nuclear state status

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea reasserted Friday it is an internationally
recognized nuclear-armed state, citing a U.S. science magazine, a claim denied by
the outside world.

"The Federation of American Scientists of the United States has confirmed (North)
Korea as a nuclear weapon state," the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief
dispatch. The report said the non-profit organization's November issue listed the
North among the nine countries that possess atomic weapons.
The United States and other countries have refused to recognize North Korea as
nuclear state to avoid lending legitimacy to its atomic weapons program.
Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test in May, and is set to hold its first
bilateral talks with the Barack Obama administration when U.S. special
representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth visits North Korea on Dec.
8.
Bosworth is widely expected to meet with Kang Sok-ju, the North's first vice
foreign minister and de-facto orchestrator of the country's negotiations over its
nuclear weapons program.
Earlier this month, North Korea claimed it has completed extracting plutonium
from 8,000 spent fuel rods it has at its main nuclear facility. Experts say the
amount would be enough to make one nuclear bomb.
North Korea withdrew from a six-nation disarmament talks in April in protest of
punitive U.N. resolutions adopted after its long-range rocket test.
But the country's leader, Kim Jong-il, told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his
August visit that Pyongyang could return to the six-nation talks depending on
progress in bilateral dialogue with Washington. The six-nation forum aimed at
terminating the North's nuclear drive also involves South Korea, China, Japan and
Russia.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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