North Korea and U.S. clash at disarmament forum on nuke issues

Thomson Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea said on Tuesday it had a "powerful and reliable" nuclear deterrent to thwart any attack and accused the United States of deploying military assets nearby under the pretext of ensuring the security of the Winter Olympics.

"This is dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the current positive atmosphere of inter-Korean relations ... which could drive again into an extreme phase of confrontation," Han Tae Song, North Korea's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told a Conference on Disarmament.

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood retorted: "The United States will not recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. If the North wishes to return and be in the good graces of the international community, it knows what it has to do, it has to take steps toward denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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