North Korea justified its possession of "nuclear deterrent" Saturday, claiming that the United
States has schemed to use nuclear weapons against it for more than half a century.
Citing what it called recently declassified U.S. documents, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Washington has "persistently examined and planned the use of nuclear weapons"
against North Korea since the 1950s.
The KCNA report said the documents showed that the U.S. considered using nuclear weapons on Pyongyang during the 1950-53 Korean War, and high-ranking officials in Washington also have
threatened to launch nuclear weapons against the communist country on at least six occasions since 1976.
The North also argued that the U.S. assertion that Pyongyang's nuclear threat had led to problems on the peninsula is "a sheer fabrication" and said the North was "quite right and appropriate" to maintain nuclear deterrence.
"The documents glaringly reveal the root cause of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and the arch criminal posing a nuclear threat to it," the KCNA report said.
"The U.S. nuclear threat was a wanton and brazen-faced violation of international law, a total departure from its obligation as a state
assigned to custody of the (Nuclear) Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) not to pose a nuclear threat to non-nuclear states," it said.
North Korea withdrew from NPT in 2003 amid international criticism about its nascent nuclear
weapons programs, saying then the move was "a legitimate self-defensive measure taken against the U.S. moves to stifle the DPRK."
The DPRK, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the official name of North Korea.
The North tested its nuclear devices in October 2006 and in May 2009.
North Korea has frequently defended its nuclear arsenal as a means to protect its sovereignty. During a keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly late September, the North's Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon also said Pyongyang's nuclear weapons are for self-defense, not for attacking others, and the North will only bolster its nuclear deterrent as long as the U.S. threatens the communist nation.
The latest claim comes as regional powers are trying to revive stalled multilateral talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear ambitions.
Pyongyang in recent weeks has been beckoning its fellow members in the six-party talks -- South Korea, the U.S., Russia, Japan and host China -- to restart negotiations. The talks were last held in December 2008.
Efforts for the talks' resumption lost momentum in May when Seoul, citing results of a multinational probe, blamed Pyongyang for the March sinking a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, that killed 46 sailors.
South Korea has preconditioned the resumption of the six-party meeting to North Korea's taking responsible actions for the ship sinking, but North Korea has denied any responsibility.
South Korea and the U.S. maintain that they're not interested in reopening the talks only for talks' sake and have urged North Korea to take concrete steps toward denuclearization, including reinstating international inspectors and declaring a moratorium on its nuclear activities.