NK Admits Possessing Nuclear Weapons for First Time

North Korea said at the third round of the three-way talks in Beijing that it already possessed nuclear weapons. “It`s up to you whether we do a physical demonstration or transfer them,” said the North as reported by the U.S. media on April 24, quoting U.S. government officials.

In addition, the U.S. media reported that North Korea stated that it “has just about completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods into plutonium for weapons. If the U.S. undertakes a bold switchover in its hostile policy toward the North, we will abandon future nuclear weapons development programs but cannot dismantle the already existing nuclear weapons arsenal. The bold switch in U.S. policy includes signing a non-aggression treaty, providing economic assistance and establishing diplomatic ties with North Korea.”

The U.S. media reported that North Korean chief negotiator Lee Gun made the remarks to his American counterpart James Kelly on the first day of the Beijing talks.

With regard to the North`s unexpected declaration, U.S. president George W. Bush said in an interview with NBC, the American broadcasting network, “North Korea is back to its old blackmail game. This will give us an opportunity to say to the North Koreans and the world we’re not going to be threatened.”

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also warned the North that “it is very careless for the North to take such a direction.” The New York Times reported that the White House said Mr. Bush would make no decisions until he fully consulted with allies, including South Korea and Japan.

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said that the “administration would carefully review the talks before deciding on how to respond. The North Koreans have said a lot of things that require careful analysis before anyone jumps in and makes grand pronouncements on what means what.”

If North Korea`s acknowledgement of possessing nuclear weapons turns out to be true, the North will have become the ninth nuclear power in the world. Meanwhile, the U.S. media reported that U.S. intelligence authorities would not rule out the possibility that North Korea’s declaration was only a bluff to draw more attention from the U.S. and the international community. Also The New York Times hinted at the possibility of misinterpreting North Korean negotiators` remarks by quoting one American official as saying, “Mr. Lee’s words are vague. No one talked about nuclear testing or selling nuclear materials.”

Meanwhile, North Korean defense ministry spokesperson said on April 25 that “North Korea has made a ‘new bold proposal’ to address U.S. concerns over Pyongyang`s nuclear weapons program.”

“The U.S. repeated its old-fashioned rhetoric calling for the North to abandon our nuclear weapons development program first without setting forth any new measures to solve the issue,” said the spokesperson. “The Democratic People`s Republic of Korea (DPRK) set forth a new bold proposal to clear up any bilateral concerns of the U.S. We will closely watch U.S. actions as to our proposal.”

Based on the North’s move, a diplomatic expert in Beijing said: “The North`s new bold proposal can be interpreted that it demanded a security guarantee from the U.S. instead of a non-aggression pact with the U.S., a proposal it had been insisting for all along.”