North Korea to disclose nuclear capability

PYONGYANG: North Korea said Thursday it would take an unspecified measure to dislay the “physical force” of its nuclear deterrent and put an end to doubts about whether it possessed atomic weapons.

“When an appropriate time comes, the DPRK (North Korea) will take a measure to open its nuclear deterrent to the public as a physical force and then there will be no need to have any more argument,” a foreign ministry spokesman told Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) monitored here. The spokesman said North Korea “will have no alternative but to take measures to maintain and increase its nuclear deterrent force as means for just self-defence” against the “hostile” policy of the United States. He declined to elaborate on the “measure” North Korea was considering, but Pyongyang has is the past threatened to carry out a nuclear test. North Korea threatened to declare itself a nuclear power at six-nation nuclear crisis talks held in Beijing two months ago, according to US officials. A senior US official said then that North Korea would face “consequences” if it made good on the threat. The two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States met for the six-way talks for the first time in late August to ease tensions caused by the stand-off over North Korea’s nuclear weapons drive. —AFP

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