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SEOUL : North Korea said it had increased its nuclear arsenal in preparation for a preemptive invasion by the United States, the Yonhap news agency quoted Pyongyang's state media as saying.
The Stalinist regime vowed last month to bolster its nuclear weapons, as it abruptly pulled out of multi-party talks aimed to halt its nuclear weapons programme and accused Washington of plotting to overthrow it.
"We have taken a serious measure by increasing nuclear arms in preparation for any invasions by enemies," Yonhap quoted the North Korean Central Broadcasting Station as saying late Monday.
It said joint US-South Korean military manoeuvres that started at the weekend were "a preparatory war against us."
The latest statement came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrapped up a tour of the region in which the nuclear standoff topped the agenda.
In a dramatic rejection of the Bush administration's policy on North Korea, the reclusive state said last month it would no longer engage in the six-party talks over its nuclear weapons programme.
"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever-more-undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK (North Korea)," state media said at the time.
Washington believes North Korea possesses one or two crude bombs and may have reprocessed enough plutonium for half-a-dozen more, from spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.
"(North Korea's) nuclear weapons will remain nuclear deterrent for self-defence under any circumstances," the statement said.
It accused Washington of seeking to topple North Korea's political system at any cost and threatening it with nuclear attack.
"This compels us to take a measure to bolster (North Korea's) nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by the people in the DPRK," it said.
- AFP
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