N Korea admits to nukes, pulls out of six-way talks

Britain said it deplored the North’s announcement, which comes as some of the world’s largest military powers have been trying to coax the reclusive Communist government to return to the stalled disarmament talks.‘‘We … have manufactured nukes to cope with the Bush administration’s evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK,’’ the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement marks the first time the North has publicly said it has nuclear weapons and is Pyongyang’s first response to resuming six-party talks since US President George W. Bush said in his inauguration speech on January 20 that he was committed to ending tyranny.

The statement poses a challenge to Bush, who has backed a diplomatic solution to the crisis but now faces two nations he once named as part of an ‘‘axis of evil’’ being openly defiant of their nuclear programmes, North Korea and Iran.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday he believed North Korea could be brought back to the negotiating table, while Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it regretted the North’s declaration of intent to build up its nuclear arsenal and halt its participation in the six-way dialogue.

South Korea and Japan responded swiftly to the North’s move. ‘‘We express our grave concern over North Korea’s comment on its possessing nuclear weapons and we make it clear again that we won’t tolerate North’s nuclear weapons,’’ a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

In Luxembourg, Rice said US had no intention of attacking or invading North Korea and said she hoped the talks would resume soon. —Reuters