SEOUL (Reuters) - Communist North Korea (news - web sites) said on Monday it wanted nuclear weapons so it could cut its huge conventional forces and divert funds into an economy foreign analysts say is close to collapse.
North Korea's most explicit public acknowledgement to date that it was seeking to build nuclear weapons also marked the first time Pyongyang had linked its atomic program to cutting its conventional military and saving money.
North Korea has one of the largest armed forces in the world with 1.1 million troops, many of them forward-deployed near the Demilitarized Zone that bisects the Korean peninsula.
In a Korean-language commentary, the North's official KCNA news agency said if the United States did not give up what it described as its hostile policy Pyongyang would have no choice but to have a nuclear deterrent.
"We are not trying to possess a nuclear deterrent in order to blackmail others but we are trying to reduce conventional weapons and divert our human and monetary resources to economic development and improve the living standards of the people," KCNA said. A commentary on KCNA clearly has high-level approval.
The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) has said the North processed enough plutonium for one or two atomic bombs during a nuclear program that was frozen in 1994. Late last year, the North restarted a research reactor capable of producing plutonium.
At three-way talks including China, North Korea told the United States in April it already had nuclear weapons.
The KCNA report was issued as South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-kil told parliament he planned to raise 2004 military spending to prepare for a greater defense burden falling on Seoul under a sweeping overhaul of U.S. forces in the South.
'ABSURD COMMENT'
Yu Suk-ryul, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, said the KCNA commentary seemed intended to play up the North's economic difficulties and underscore its desire for bilateral talks with the United States about its nuclear ambitions.
"Because North Korea admitted officially it possesses nuclear weapons, now they can give reasons based on that," he said. Many economists say the North's economy is close to collapse despite -- or even because of -- piecemeal reforms. Many people are malnourished, aid groups say.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington, Seoul or Tokyo, but the United States was unlikely to welcome linkage between nuclear and conventional weapons and cash. All three countries have offered aid if the North drops its nuclear plans.
Paik Jin-hyun, a professor at Seoul National University said the North's arguments were not persuasive.
"No one would believe that North Korea has developed nuclear arms for those reasons," he said. "This is another absurd comment from North Korea."
The administration of President Bush (news - web sites), who has branded North Korea part of an axis of evil with Iran and pre-war Iraq (news - web sites), initially wanted talks with Pyongyang to include conventional forces and weaponry -- not least the thousands of artillery pieces along the DMZ, within easy range of the South's capital Seoul.
But Washington later dropped that precondition, although it remains on the U.S. shopping list. The main focus now is on how to get North Korea to ditch its nuclear program.
In Japan, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was winding up a four-day visit during which he and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi confirmed they would seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis but differed on how to achieve that.
Roh underscored the need for dialogue. But Koizumi, while agreeing it was important to talk, has spoken of a tougher response if Pyongyang escalated the situation.
South Korea (news - web sites)'s plan to boost military spending to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product next year, from 2.7 percent in 2003, comes after Washington and Seoul agreed last week to remove U.S. forces from the frontier with North Korea. (Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Tokyo
North Korea's most explicit public acknowledgement to date that it was seeking to build nuclear weapons also marked the first time Pyongyang had linked its atomic program to cutting its conventional military and saving money.
North Korea has one of the largest armed forces in the world with 1.1 million troops, many of them forward-deployed near the Demilitarized Zone that bisects the Korean peninsula.
In a Korean-language commentary, the North's official KCNA news agency said if the United States did not give up what it described as its hostile policy Pyongyang would have no choice but to have a nuclear deterrent.
"We are not trying to possess a nuclear deterrent in order to blackmail others but we are trying to reduce conventional weapons and divert our human and monetary resources to economic development and improve the living standards of the people," KCNA said. A commentary on KCNA clearly has high-level approval.
The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) has said the North processed enough plutonium for one or two atomic bombs during a nuclear program that was frozen in 1994. Late last year, the North restarted a research reactor capable of producing plutonium.
At three-way talks including China, North Korea told the United States in April it already had nuclear weapons.
The KCNA report was issued as South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-kil told parliament he planned to raise 2004 military spending to prepare for a greater defense burden falling on Seoul under a sweeping overhaul of U.S. forces in the South.
'ABSURD COMMENT'
Yu Suk-ryul, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, said the KCNA commentary seemed intended to play up the North's economic difficulties and underscore its desire for bilateral talks with the United States about its nuclear ambitions.
"Because North Korea admitted officially it possesses nuclear weapons, now they can give reasons based on that," he said. Many economists say the North's economy is close to collapse despite -- or even because of -- piecemeal reforms. Many people are malnourished, aid groups say.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington, Seoul or Tokyo, but the United States was unlikely to welcome linkage between nuclear and conventional weapons and cash. All three countries have offered aid if the North drops its nuclear plans.
Paik Jin-hyun, a professor at Seoul National University said the North's arguments were not persuasive.
"No one would believe that North Korea has developed nuclear arms for those reasons," he said. "This is another absurd comment from North Korea."
The administration of President Bush (news - web sites), who has branded North Korea part of an axis of evil with Iran and pre-war Iraq (news - web sites), initially wanted talks with Pyongyang to include conventional forces and weaponry -- not least the thousands of artillery pieces along the DMZ, within easy range of the South's capital Seoul.
But Washington later dropped that precondition, although it remains on the U.S. shopping list. The main focus now is on how to get North Korea to ditch its nuclear program.
In Japan, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was winding up a four-day visit during which he and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi confirmed they would seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear crisis but differed on how to achieve that.
Roh underscored the need for dialogue. But Koizumi, while agreeing it was important to talk, has spoken of a tougher response if Pyongyang escalated the situation.
South Korea (news - web sites)'s plan to boost military spending to 3.2 percent of gross domestic product next year, from 2.7 percent in 2003, comes after Washington and Seoul agreed last week to remove U.S. forces from the frontier with North Korea. (Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Tokyo
