WASHINGTON — North Korea on Thursday made its boldest claim that it has atomic weapons and said it would not return to six-nation talks to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.
The news jarred U.S. officials and their allies, who believed North Korea had nuclear devices but had expected disarmament talks to resume as soon as this month.
In a statement transmitted by the nation's official news agency, Pyongyang said it had decided to suspend negotiations because the second-term Bush administration was pursuing "regime change" and seeking to "isolate and stifle" North Korea.
The United States and other governments sought to downplay the significance of North Korea's announcement. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was traveling in Europe, called the announcement "unfortunate" and said it only deepened North Korea's international isolation. She promised to consult with South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, the other nations in the six-party talks, before deciding how to proceed.
Behind the public nonchalance, current and former U.S. and foreign officials said that Pyongyang's move raised disturbing questions. All expressed hope that North Korea was posturing to exact concessions before returning to the bargaining table. They said North Korea might re-engage in the talks if China, which supplies much of its fuel and food, applied sufficient pressure. But none of the officials was willing to predict that China would do so.
Some expressed the fear that North Korea's leadership had no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons and was seeking de facto recognition as a nuclear power. Pyongyang's "indefinite suspension" of talks, officials said, was probably its attempt to stall while expanding its arsenal, betting that China and a U.S. administration preoccupied with the Middle East would not risk nuclear war to try to disarm it.
"I think it is a crisis," said a senior diplomat from a country involved in the six-nation talks, adding that Thursday's action could prove as significant as Pyongyang's announcement in 1993 that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which triggered the first crisis around North Korea's nuclear activities.
"This could be their attempt to make their nuclear weapons a fait accompli, make them join the club of India and Pakistan," the diplomat said.
