North Korea admitted to American envoys it has nuclear weapons at three-way crisis talks in Beijing which ended a day ahead of schedule today.
The talks, the first direct high-level encounter between the United States and North Korea since a nuclear showdown erupted in October, featured "strong views" on all sides, and no new consultations are currently planned, US officials said.
"They said what we always knew, that they do have weapons. That doesn't shock us, we have been saying it. Now they have said it," said a US official familiar with the discussions.
US intelligence analysts previously said North Korea could have up to two nuclear weapons, but it has never before explicitly confirmed those suspicions.
The Stalinist state is thought to have the capacity to produce another five or six more bombs if it reprocesses 8,000 spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear plant, and is accused by the United States of pursuing a separate program based on enriched uranium.
US officials declined to publicly confirm North Korea's bombshell announcement to US Asia envoy Mr James Kelly in the talks with North Korea and China which started today.
The three-way talks did not collapse but ended before their scheduled close tomorrow, the sources said. "The talks did not break down, the talks ended, they ended early," said the source, adding that China had forcefully stated in the consultations that it wanted a non-nuclear Korean peninsula.
US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell earlier said the trilateral component of the dialogue was now over, but did not rule out further US-China or North Korea-China talks tomorrow. "Strong views were presented, the North Koreans presented their point of view strongly, the Chinese did as well, as did the United States," Mr Powell said.
Pyongyang has insisted the nuclear crisis must be resolved in a bilateral dialogue with the United States, but the Bush administration has refused such a forum, demanding multilateral talks involving Asian regional powers.
The United States has demanded a verifiable end to North Korea's nuclear program. Pyongyang has demanded security guarantees, and is thought to want US financial aid an investment, an approach slammed by Washington as nuclear "blackmail."