WASHINGTON, Aug 28: North Korea threatened at six-nation talks in Beijing on Thursday to formally declare itself a nuclear power and conduct a nuclear test, US officials said.

North Korea’s envoy to the talks, Kim Yong-Il, made the declaration in front of the US delegation and envoys from Russia, China, South Korea and Japan on talks on the 10 month-old nuclear crisis, two officials said.

“We are taking it seriously but they have said these kind of things before,” said one of the officials.

US analysts had warned before the talks that North Korea could make such a declaration if it found itself under pressure — or could simply see such a threat as raising the ante in the three days of talks.

A Japanese official in Beijing said earlier that tempers rose among the North Korean delegation on the second day of the talks.

“The North Korean side got hot, but stopped short of getting over-excited,” said the official, who noted the “harsh” words sometimes chosen by the delegates from Pyongyang during Thursday’s session.

US envoy James Kelly left the talks venue on Thursday at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse, more than two hours before negotiators from Pyongyang, after six-party talks concluded for a second day.

The afternoon was spent in bilateral and trilateral discussions among other participants.

Japan announced it had conducted one-on-one talks with North Korea, while Chinese state media reported Moscow had also been granted an audience with Pyongyang’s representatives.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister said after the meeting that new negotiations on the nuclear standoff would be held by October and that the six nations now holding crisis talks in Beijing were close to signing a final communique.

“There is a general understanding that we should be not be delaying the negotiations, and that the next round should be held within the next two months,” ITAR-TASS quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying.

The sides agree that “they (the talks) should be held in Beijing”, Russia’s chief negotiator said.

“As far as I understand, North Korea has no objections to this.”

He added that the six nations were close to agreeing on the wording of a final document that would be formally signed at the end of the talks on Friday.

Mr Losyukov did not disclose the document’s contents, adding only that Chinese and North Korean delegations were currently in meetings to put the finishing touches to the statement.

He added that the final statement “will express hope” for a future meeting of the six sides.

Russia for the first time is taking part in multilateral talks on North Korea.—Reuters