SEOUL, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Facing growing international pressure against its nuclear ambitions, North Korea has confused the United States and its allies with conflicting signals regarding Pyongyang's possession of atomic weapons.
Officials and analysts here were stunned Sunday when North Korea's state-run media said that the country "has come to have nuclear weapons" to deal with U.S. military threats. But on Monday, they expressed doubt about the credibility of the report, saying it may be misinterpreted or was a rare mistake by the North Korean state broadcaster.
Radio Pyongyang said that North Korea "has come to have strong military countermeasures including nuclear weapons to cope with increased nuclear threats by the U.S. imperialists," according to Seoul's official Yonhap News Agency that monitors North Korean broadcasts.
The statement, in a commentary accusing the United States of escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear program, was interpreted by some analysts as Pyongyang's first confirmation of possession of nuclear weapons. Radio Pyongyang is one of North Korea's two main radio broadcasting stations that have served as the North's official voice.
Until now, North Korea had claimed that it was "entitled to have nuclear weapons and more powerful weapons than that to protect its sovereignty from U.S. threats."
"It is too early to say that the short and one-time report represented a change in North Korea's official position on nuclear weapons," a Foreign Ministry official told United Press International. North Korea has neither confirmed nor denied its possession of nuclear weapons.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said: "If the North were to announce that it has the nuclear (weapons), it would definitely make big issue out of it, broadcasting the message simultaneously all over the world."
"It is possible that North Korea deliberately attempted to create confusion over the nuclear issue," the official said.
North Korea has left the international community to make guesses about its nuclear weapons situation since it admitted to a visiting U.S. special envoy in October that it had a covert program to make nuclear weapons with enriched uranium.
Pyongyang's media moves came just days after the United States and its allies decided to cut off oil shipments to North Korea because of a violation of a 1994 accord under which it agreed to freeze its plutonium facilities suspected of being used to develop nuclear weapons.
U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed the international move to suspend fuel oil shipments, saying, "North's Korea's clear violation of its international commitments will not be ignored."
In a statement on Friday, Bush also demanded North Korea dismantle its nuclear program while reiterating the United States has no intention of invading the isolated country.
North Korea has not responded to the decision to cut the fuel shipments, but angrily responded to Bush's statement.
"U.S. President Bush's remarks are invasion talks seen the other way around," Pyongyang's media said. "The United States is spreading a whopping lie that the DPRK (North Korea) violates the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and the DPRK-U.S. agreed framework," said Rodong Sinmun, the publication of the ruling Workers' Party.
"The lie is aimed to tarnish the international prestige and authority of the DPRK and isolate the DPRK on a worldwide scale. And it is a cunning plot to cover up the criminal nature of the U.S. posing nuclear threats to the DPRK and divert the public attention at home and abroad elsewhere," it said.
