North Korea has issued a statement confirming that they have nuclear weapons; they've also suspended their participation in nuclear talks indefinitely, says the
WaPost:
North Korea on Thursday announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons and rejected moves to restart disarmament talks any time soon, saying it needs the weapons as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.
The communist state's pronouncement dramatically raised the stakes in the two-year-old nuclear confrontation and posed a grave challenge to President Bush, who started his second term with a vow to end North Korea's nuclear program through six-nation talks.
[snip]
Like most North Korean statements, the claim could not be independently verified. North Korea expelled the last U.N. nuclear monitors in late 2002 and has never tested a nuclear bomb, though international officials have said for years the country is believed to have one or two nuclear bombs and enough fuel for several more.
The bold emphasis is mine. It is very important to remember that N. Korea's claim cannot be verified (yet).
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And here's what Condi had to say:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the North shouldn't worry about any U.S. plans for invasion.
"The North Koreans have no reason to believe that anyone wants to attack them," she told the Netherlands' RTL TV in an interview while on a trip through Europe. "They have been told they can have multilateral security assurances if they will make the important decision to give up their nuclear weapons program."
Translated: there isn't any oil in North Korea (see the CIA's Factbook on North Korea).
More:
Previously, North Korea reportedly told U.S. negotiators in private talks that it had nuclear weapons and might test one of them. The North's U.N. envoy told The Associated Press last year that the country had "weaponized" plutonium from its pool of 8,000 nuclear spent fuel rods. Those rods contained enough plutonium for several bombs.
But Thursday's statement was North Korea's first public acknowledgment that it has nuclear weapons.
North Korea's "nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the ministry said, adding that Washington's alleged attempt to topple Pyongyang's regime "compels us to take a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by its people."
Interesting... is this just more rhetoric?
The BBC News website has North Korea's full statement.
They also have a timeline of the North Korea nuclear situation, which started in 2002, when North Korea expelled U.N. nuclear monitors.
Finally, for those wondering how a nuclear bomb is made, click the radiation symbol: