Communist North Korea said this afternoon it was reprocessing enough spent fuel rods to make at least half-a-dozen nuclear bombs.
The announcement came only days after North Korea appeared to be showing some flexibility in resolving a six-month-old nuclear crisis and had agreed to open multilateral dialogue with China and the US in Beijing.
Ratcheting up the stakes ahead of next week's crucial talks, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman told the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that the country was reprocessing more than 8,000 spent fuel rods.
The United States and "other countries concerned" were informed of the development, the spokesman said.
But Washington said it was unaware that North Korea was reprocessing spent fuel rods. South Korea and Japan also denied knowledge of the North Korean move.
"We have no information to indicate that North Korea has begun reprocessing the rods," a US State Department official said.
US officials believe North Korea already has one or two atomic bombs. Reprocessing could add at least six within months, they say.
Until now, North Korea has insisted that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes only, but experts say that Pyongyang has no possible use for plutonium produced by reprocessing other than for building atomic bombs.
AFP