Rice downplays 'unfortunate move'

The United States had assumed since the mid-1990s that North Korea could make nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday, playing down a dramatic announcement from Pyongyang.

She said North Korea would only deepen its own isolation, and forgo international security guarantees, if it pulled out of six-party talks on its nuclear programme.

"We have for some time taken account of the capability of the North Koreans to perhaps have a few nuclear weapons," Rice said after talks with the European Union, calling the North Korean statement "an unfortunate move".

Washington and South Korea had a sufficient deterrent on the Korean peninsula to "deal with any potential threat from North Korea".

She reiterated that the United States had no intention of attacking or invading North Korea and said she hoped the talks would resume soon. The negotiations offered Pyongyang A path out of isolation and the prospect of multilateral security guarantees, she said. "The fact of the matter is that the world has given them a way out and they should take that way out." she said.

"It is very clear to the North Koreans that no such security assurances would be forthcoming if they were not prepared to take a decision to dismantle their nuclear weapons and their programmes in a verifiable and irreversible way," Rice said.

- REUTERS