North Korea claims nuclear weapons

North Korea on Thursday publicly acknowledged for the first time that it has nuclear weapons to defend itself from the United States, and declared pulling out of the six-nation talks hosted by China to find a diplomatic solution to the vexed issue.

"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and have manufactured nuclear arms for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration's undisguised policy to isolate and stifle us," a North Korean foreign ministry statement said.

Citing what it calls US threats to topple its political system, North Korea said it is dropping out of six-party nuclear talks and will "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal in order to protect the ideology, system, freedom and democracy chosen by its people," the Xinhua agency quoted Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA as saying.

This is the first public claim by North Korea to actually possess nuclear weapons. In the past, Pyongyang has claimed to have the ability and the right to produce them.

The reclusive Stalinist state said it feels "compelled to suspend" participation in the six-nation talks "for an indefinite period."

"We have shown utmost magnanimity and patience for the past four years since the first Bush administration swore in. We cannot spend another four years as we did in the past four years and there is no need for us to repeat what we did in those years," the statement said.