North Korea withdrew from the global nuclear arms control treaty yesterday, but said it would devote its nuclear activities to peaceful ends and would not build weapons "at this stage."
The move was likely to heighten tension over North Korea's nuclear development efforts as the US and its allies seek a diplomatic resolution.
Outgoing South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said dialogue and patience were needed. Japan demanded North Korea reverse the decision. There was no immediate comment from the US or China, one of Pyongyang's few friends. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said Moscow was concerned.
Although adding to the drama, the withdrawal was partly symbolic. North Korea was already violating the 1968 nuclear treaty by secretly pursuing nuclear weapons development, and by flouting UN safeguards at its nuclear facilities.
The withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty could (NPT) signal that North Korea plans to push ahead with its nuclear armament, or that it is trying to pressure the US into concessions through brinkmanship.
The announcement came as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador, acted as a surprise intermediary between the US and North Korea. He was meeting with two envoys from the communist country.
North Korea blamed what it said was US aggression for its decision to withdraw from the treaty.
"We can no longer remain bound to the NPT, allowing the country's security and the dignity of our nation to be infringed upon," the North Korean government said in a statement carried on KCNA, its official news agency.
"Though we pull out of the NPT, we have no intention of producing nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined only to peaceful purposes such as the production of electricity," KCNA said.
In 1993, North Korea also announced that it was withdrawing from the treaty, but suspended the decision three months later and entered talks with the US.
The treaty says a nation that withdraws from the pact must give notification three months in advance. North Korea, however, said it was withdrawing immediately.
The crisis escalated last month when Pyongyang expelled UN inspectors at nuclear facilities that US officials say were used to make one or two bombs in the 1990s.
North Korea said it was reactivating the facilities, and experts say North Korea could make several more bombs within six months if it extracts weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods at the Yongbyon site.
North Korea wants Washington signs a nonaggression treaty. The US has said it will talk with the North but has demanded that it "promptly and verifiably" dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
In its statement, North Korea denounced a Jan. 6 statement by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency that urged it to readmit its inspectors and allow the Yongbyon site to be monitored. The facilities were frozen under a 1994 deal with Washington.
"The withdrawal from the NPT is a legitimate self-defensive measure taken against the US moves to stifle" North Korea, the North's news agency said.
North Korea has repeatedly accused the US of plotting to invade it, and has said it has the right to develop weapons for its self-defense. However, it has never publicly said that it has a nuclear weapons program.
Japan demanded the North respond quickly to growing fears over its weapons intentions.
"Our nation will strongly demand from North Korea a quick retraction of its statement and a positive response to solving the nuclear weapons problem," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said in Tokyo.
North Korea joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1985. It suspended its 1993 decision to withdraw from the treaty amid tension over its suspected nuclear weapons program.
The crisis was defused a year later when North Korea agreed to freeze its facilities at Yongbyon under an energy deal with the US. Those facilities are the focus on the new crisis.
The 1968 treaty is considered a cornerstone in the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
Only four other countries -- Cuba, India, Israel and Pakistan -- are not signatories, though Cuba is a member of a treaty establishing a nuclear-free zone in Latin America.
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