SEOUL, June 9: North Korea admitted publicly for the first time on Monday that it was seeking nuclear weapons and blamed “hostile” US policy for forcing it to develop a deterrent.

Since the nuclear crisis erupted eight months ago, North Korea has often referred to its possession of a powerful physical deterrent.

But Pyongyang has carefully avoided admitting in public to either seeking or possessing nuclear weapons.

“We have no other option but to have nuclear deterrence if the United States keeps its hostile policy and continues its nuclear threat towards the DPRK,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a Korean language dispatch carried by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

The KCNA later carried the commentary on its English-language service in which repeated reference was made to the need for nuclear deterrence against US hostility.

The KCNA commentary stopped short of saying Pyongyang had already developed nuclear weapons, although North Korea has confessed as much in private, according to Washington.—AFP