North Korea has "weaponised" enough declared plutonium stocks to produce four to five nuclear bombs, said Selig Harrison, a U.S. expert just returned from talks with officials in Pyongyang.
Harrison told reporters in Beijing on Saturday that North Korean officials also told him "the weapons cannot be inspected".
Harrison, speaking about his visit to the North from Jan. 12, said he talked with four North Korean officials, including Li Gun, the foreign ministry official in charge of relations with the United States.
Harrison said he was told "North Korea wants friendly relations with the United States".
He was also told that if the Obama Administration makes a political decision for improved relations then "the DPRK and the United States can become intimate friends".
Harrison also quoted Li as saying that North Korea was not in a position to say when it might commit itself to nuclear disarmament.
He said the North Korean official told him that they had "already weaponised 30.8 kilograms (68 lb) of plutonium" that was listed as part of the North's nuclear declaration, adding that they had said "the weapons cannot be inspected".
Harrison said he understood that amount was enough to make four or five nuclear weapons. The North Koreans would not say how the plutonium had been "weaponised" but indicated it was used for missiles, he said.
LIGHT-WATER REACTORS
Harrison said he could not vouch for the credibility of Norkor's weaponisation claims. But he said they would make negotiations more difficult.
North Korea has delayed implementing a nuclear disarmament agreement struck at six-party talks in Beijing, unwilling to accept verification rules demanded by the other countries in the talks and claiming they have not abided by their aid vows.
Harrison said North Korea is also demanding construction of two unfinished light-water reactors in return for dismantling Yongbyon.
"That's certainly raising the bar," he said.
Harrison is a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a policy institute in Washington, D.C. His visit to the isolated North came days before President-elect Barack Obama enters the White House.
North Korea's state media said earlier on Saturday Pyongyang would not give up its nuclear ambitions as long as a U.S. nuclear threat persists.
"It will be wrong if the United States thinks that we are giving up nuclear programme in exchange for normalising diplomatic ties with them," the spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) [nSEO281160]
"We have prospered for decades with no ties with the United States and what we want is bolstering our nuclear deterrent power to protect our country, not normalising the relationships... There'll be no change in our status as a nuclear state as long as U.S. nuclear threat remains."
North Korea has often pledged to get rid of its nuclear programme, but has dragged its heals in disarmament talks for the past 15 years despite being offered sweeteners to lift its economy out of desperate poverty.
President George W. Bush's top Asia adviser had predicted earlier this week that North Korea might try to raise the stakes in order to increase its leverage after Obama takes office on Tuesday [nN16308765].
MIXED SIGNALS
Obama and his designated secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Clinton have indicated they will continue and probably enhance the George W. Bush administration's effort to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons in six-nation talks involving regional powers.
Last-ditch efforts by the Bush administration to win North Korea's agreement on a system to verify its nuclear history and disarmament progress ended in stalemate at the end of 2008.
The secretive North has sent mixed signals in the past few weeks about how it will conduct its nuclear dealings. It appeared to have extended an olive branch to Obama in a New Year's message that said it was willing to work with friendly countries.
The impoverished and isolated North was hit with U.N. sanctions after an October 2006 nuclear test.
North Korea's already weak economy will be dragged down even further the longer the nuclear talks are stalled because Washington has called for a suspension of most aid to North Korea for not abiding by the disarmament deal.