BEIJING: The nuclear crisis talks between North Korea, the United States and China have ended a day early, after North Korea confirmed to US diplomats it has nuclear weapons. North America Editor Conor O'Clery reports.
Amid reports that the talks had broken down, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said bilateral talks between China and the US or between China and North Korea were possible but the three-way talks had ended.
Bush administration officials briefing reporters in Washington said North Korea confirmed it has nuclear weapons, that it was processing more spent fuel, and that it would export nuclear material if it did not receive aid, diplomatic recognition and a pledge by the US not to attack.
Mr Powell said that "strong views" were expressed on all sides at the talks in the walled Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, at which the US was represented by a senior diplomat. Mr Powell warned Pyongyang that the Bush administration would not submit to "bellicose" threats to force it to "make a concession we would not otherwise make".
The meeting was the first direct high-level contact between the US and North Korea since the crisis over the latter's development of a nuclear programme erupted in October. As the talks went into a second day, North Korea, which frequently uses threatening rhetoric, warned that "war may break out any moment" due to the crisis with the US.
The admission that it possesses nuclear weapons sharply increases tensions in the region as Pyongyang already has the capability to launch rockets as far away as Japan and the US west coast.
"They said what we always knew - that they do have [nuclear\] weapons," said a US official. "That doesn't shock us. We've been saying that. Now they said it." He denied reports that the North Koreans said they were testing nuclear weapons.
The US's goal is to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
"The North Koreans should not leave the meetings in Beijing, now that they have come to a conclusion . . . with the slightest impression that the United States and its partners will be intimidated by bellicose statements or by threats," Mr Powell said in remarks to the US Asia-Pacific Council.
"As you know, we have not taken any options off the table but the President remains convinced . . . that a peaceful solution can be found," he said, referring to the fact that the US has not ruled out the use of military force.
"We must not allow the peninsula to become nuclear," Mr Powell said. "North Korea must come to understand this. North Korea must also come to understand that we will not be threatened, we will not respond to threats." While North Korea wants a security guarantee from the US, aid and diplomatic recognition, the US is insisting that Pyongyang agrees to scrap its nuclear programme before it discusses concessions.
North Korea said the US should renounce its "hostile" intent before it discusses demands for dismantling its nuclear programme and verification.
North Korea said Washington had used verification as a pretext to start the war in Iraq. "The inspection and disarmament forced by the US upon an independent state in violation of its sovereignty and its right to existence without any proper reason and ground are only aimed to justify and legalise aggression and war," it said.