N Korea threatens to double N-deterrent

On Friday, North Korea set three conditions to be met before it would consider returning to six-party talks on its nuclear programs, including Washington ditching its "hostile policy."

The main newspaper in North Korea, the communist daily Rodong Sinmun, took this a stage further on Saturday in a commentary published by the official KCNA news agency.

"If the US persistently pursues its confrontational hostile policy toward the DPRK from the viewpoint of escapism, it will only compel the DPRK to double its deterrent force," the newspaper said. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has never said how many nuclear weapons it has and usually refers ambiguously to its "deterrent force." US officials say the North could have between two and eight weapons.

The commentary said the root cause of the US policy was that Washington wanted to retain military influence in the region, even though the United States -- unlike its regional partners -- is a long way from Northeast Asia.

"This is a main source of trouble and a stumbling block in the way of settling the present situation," it said.

AFP adds: The United States will not accept North Korean demands as "conditions" for the resumption of stalled talks on resolving the Korean nuclear deadlock but Pyongyang is free to raise them if it returns to the table, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.

Powell, in Tokyo on the first leg of a three-nation Asian tour that will also take him to China and South Korea, said North Korea would not win rewards for simply agreeing to attend a next round of the so-called "six-party talks."