North Korea said this morning it had finished reprocessing some 8,000 spent fuel rods, generating enough plutonium for six nuclear weapons.
"As we have already declared, the DPRK resumed nuclear activities for a peaceful purpose," the North's official KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
The fuel rods were stored at the country's Yongbyon nuclear facility, which was shut down under an agreement with the US in 1994 but has recently been restarted.
The spokesman added: "We will reprocess more spent fuel rods to be churned out in an unbroken chain from the 5 mw nuclear reactor in Yongbyon without delay when we deem it necessary."