North Korea Joins Nuclear Club

On Thursday the North Korean Foreign Ministry made public a statement acknowledging the country has its own nuclear weapons.

Moreover, North Korea announced its intention to pull out of the talks on its nuclear program. "We have already taken resolute action to quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have manufactured our own nuclear weapons of self-defense in response to the policy of US President George Bush's administration that does not conceal its desire to isolate and stifle the People's Democratic Republic of Korea", the statement of the North Korean Foreign Ministry says.

North Korea announced that the dialogue was suspended for an indefinite period. Talks on termination of North Korean nuclear program had been going on since 2003. Taking part in it, besides N. Korea, were USA, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan. Since the start the parties have had three rounds of talks, all in vain.

""There is no justification for us to participate in the talks, given that the Bush administration termed the PDRK, a dialogue partner, an 'outpost of tyranny'," the official Pyongyang statement says, as reported by N. Korean state news agency KCNA.

North Korea possessing nuclear arms causes serious concern of its neighbors. In particular, Japan has markedly speeded up its military reforms, placing the emphasis on developing a joint US-Japan anti-missile defense system.