North Korea?s declaration that it possesses nuclear weapons does not make it a nuclear weapons state, South Korea?s unification minister said yesterday, clearly sceptical about the veracity and timing of Pyongyang?s statement. Last week, North Korea explicitly said for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons in a serious challenge to South Korea, the United States and China, which have all played lead roles in trying to curb the communist state?s atomic ambitions. Pyongyang also said it was pulling out of so-called six-party talks on its nuclear programmes because of what it called US hostility. Minister Chung Dong-young said there was no evidence of nuclear testing by the North and it was premature to conclude North Korea possessed nuclear weapons.

?There is no doubt that North Korea has 10 to 14 kg (22 lb to 31 lb) of plutonium, but there is no evidence that the North has turned it into plutonium bombs,? Chung told parliament. ?We see it as a claim to own nuclear weapons, not an official statement of being a nuclear weapons state,? Chung said. Chung also heads South Korea?s National Security Council, which advises President Roh Moo-hyun. The US State Department had no immediate comment. US officials and other world leaders and experts have said that North Korea probably has one or two and possibly more than eight nuclear weapons.

A Defence White Paper released by South Korea on Feb. 4 said North Korea was believed to have conducted an aerial blast test and has probably built one or two nuclear weapons. But although most proliferation experts agree the North has enough nuclear fuel to produce as many as eight atomic weapons, they say whether the reclusive state has actually produced them cannot be confirmed. ?The intelligence community is divided over whether North Korea has assembled its fissile material into nuclear bombs, and it is uncertain whether North Korea has miniaturised any weapons that could be loaded onto a North Korea delivery vehicle,? the California-based Centre for Nonproliferation Studies said in a recent paper.

<B>Jack Kim</B>