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NORTH KOREA'S STATEMENT ABOUT POSSESSION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russian senator Mikhail Margelov calls North Korea's official statement that it possesses nuclear weapons "extremely dangerous."

Mr. Margelov also noted that forcible actions against the North Korean regime are out of question. "If somebody plans anything like that, it is very dangerous, especially when we know that nuclear weapons are in possession of a totalitarian leader and he can always use them," the council member underlined.

He pointed out that the use of force is rarely effective and the U.S. action in Iraq serves as a good example of that. "After a forcible action, an obvious question arises - what is next? The Americans failed to provide an adequate answer to this question in Iraq," Mr. Margelov emphasized.

On Thursday, North Korea announced its withdrawal from six-way talks on its nuclear programs and admitted for the first time that it has successfully created its own nuclear weapons.

"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks and there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks," the statement of a North Korean foreign ministry official says. The statement was disseminated on Thursday by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The negotiation process has come to a deadlock because of the U.S. hostile stance toward North Korea," the diplomat explained.

"The U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick. This compels us to take a measure to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by the people in the DPRK," he stated.

Meanwhile, he declared that North Korea "created nuclear weapons for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle its government."

"Nuclear weapons will remain a nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the statement underlines.