N Korea: Why we want nukes

2003-06-09 08:31

Seoul - Communist North Korea admitted publicly for the first time on Monday in an official media dispatch that it was seeking nuclear weapons.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also explained for the first time North Korean thinking behind its drive for nuclear deterrence.

"Our desire to have a nuclear deterrent is not to blackmail anybody, but to reduce conventional weaponry and thus convert human resources and funnel money into economic construction and the people's lives," KCNA said in a commentary in Korean monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Since the nuclear crisis erupted eight months ago, North Korea has frequently referred publicly to its possession of a powerful physical deterrent.

But never before has Pyongyang admitted in public to either seeking or possessing nuclear weapons.

The nuclear crisis was triggered in October last year when the United States revealed that North Korea has admitted in private talks with Washington to running a nuclear weapons programme based on uranium.

North Korea also suggested that it was seeking other weapons of mass destruction at lower cost than nuclear bombs.

US and South Korea intelligence believe North Korea has a large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.

"We will strengthen a powerful physical deterrent that costs less but can incapacitate any high-tech or nuclear weapons unless the United States gives up its hostile policy towards North Korea," KCNA said.

- AFX