WASHINGTON, June 9: North Korea has a stockpile of nuclear bombs and is building more weapons, the country’s vice foreign minister Kim Gye Gwan said in an interview with a US television network before key talks between the US and South Korean presidents on Friday.

“I should say that we have enough nuclear bombs to defend against a US attack,” the North Korean official told ABC News in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. Asked whether Pyongyang was building more nuclear bombs, Mr Kim said: “Yes”.

His admission about North Korea’s nuclear capability further clouds efforts to negotiate a settlement over its atomic weapons.

The nuclear crisis will be a key issue when South Korea’s President Roh Moo-Hyun meets President George Bush for talks also intended to bolster the key South Korean-US alliance.

The North Korean nuclear standoff has created a rift, with Mr Roh advocating a soft line towards the North and opposing White House plans for tougher measures that could include sanctions.

Washington believes North Korea possesses one or two crude nuclear bombs and may have reprocessed enough plutonium for six more, from spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

Mr Kim, North Korea’s chief negotiator in six-party talks on the North’s nuclear weapons, would neither confirm nor deny that Pyongyang had a missile capable of hitting the United States.

He was also non-committal when asked about North Korea’s ability to put a nuclear warhead on its long-range missiles.

“I want you to know that our scientists have the knowledge, comparable to other scientists around the world,” he said. “You can take it as you like.”

But Mr Kim stressed that North Korea ‘doesn’t have any intention at all of attacking the US’. The State Department had no comment about the report.

—AFP