N. Korea vows U.S. must alter position

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea refused yesterday to give up its nuclear weapons until after the United States alters its "hostile policy" toward the regime and proves it does not pose an atomic threat to the wartime rival.

The cryptic statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry is the first to lay out North Korea's nuclear stance since the last round of international talks on disarming the North in December.

Analysts say the statement - issued a week before President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration - also sends a strong signal that Pyongyang is keen to forge diplomatic relations with the next U.S. administration.

Pyongyang appears eager to make amends, refraining from its customary New Year's Day diatribe against the United States and reportedly offering to send an envoy to Obama's inauguration.

In yesterday's statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's Foreign Ministry reiterated its commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. But it said Washington could not demand that Pyongyang bare its nuclear arsenal without revealing, and removing, its own alleged nuclear weapons in South Korea.

"We would never show our nuclear weapons first - even in 100 years - unless the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threat to North Korea are terminated," said the statement, monitored in Seoul.

But the ministry also suggested that a change in policy could persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions.

"We won't need atomic weapons when U.S. nuclear threats are removed, and the U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea is gone," the statement said.

Seoul and Washington deny having a secret atomic arsenal. "We don't have nuclear weapons," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said late yesterday.