North Korea To Test Nuclear Weapon

North Korea has said it will conduct a nuclear test in the future to "bolster its war deterrent for self-defence" but would never use an atomic weapon first.

The hermit kingdom added it remained committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and said it would "firmly guarantee" the safety of any test.

Analysts believe North Korea, which shocked the region in July with a series of missile tests, has enough fissile material to make at least six to eight nuclear bombs.

But it is thought the country probably lacks the ability to make a weapon small enough to mount on a missile.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the UK would view any North Korean nuclear missile test as "a highly provocative act with serious consequences for the DPRK (North Korea)".

He added: "It would raise tensions in an already tense region and have repercussions internationally."

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the nuclear test plan was "totally unforgivable."

He added that the possibility could not be ruled out and that if such a test did take place, Tokyo would react "harshly" in concert with the international community.

Any nuclear tests would probably be seen as a move to grab attention and force the US into direct talks.

In a statement, North Korea's foreign ministry said: "The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean peninsula in which the supreme interests and security of our state are seriously infringed upon and the Korean nation stands at the crossroads of life and death."

Pyongyang accuses Washington of trying to topple its government through a crackdown on its finances. It wants this ended before it will return to international talks to end its nuclear weapons programme.

The US refuses to end the crackdown, which analysts said is causing Pyongyang's leadership real difficulties, or to hold direct talks with North Korea outside the six-country nuclear negotiations.

The talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have been stalled since November.

Western experts have said no one knows for sure whether North Korea has actually built a nuclear weapon. The country declared itself a nuclear weapons power in February 2005, without testing.