The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Thursday that it will consistently maintain and strengthen its nuclear deterrence force as the United States has no intention to drop its hostile policy toward the DPRK.

A spokesman for DPRK's foreign ministry said his country has successfully completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods.

"As we have already declared, the DPRK resumed nuclear activities for a peaceful purpose," the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The statement said the DPRK will reprocess more spent fuel rods from the 5-MW nuclear reactor in Nyongbyon without delay when it is necessary.

On the resumption of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the statement said the DPRK did not make any promise with anyone at the Beijing talks and the same holds true even after the talks.

On Wednesday, DPRK's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon told a group of reporters at the DPRK's mission to the United Nations in New York that the DPRK has already "processed 8,000 fuel rods" and also "changed the purpose of these fuel rods."

"Since the United States has threatened the DPRK with nuclear weapons to launch a preemptive nuclear attack against the DPRK, we have no choice but to be in possession of the nuclear deterrence," Choe stressed.

"That's why we have taken up all measures to maintain and strengthen that nuclear deterrence," he said, adding that the deterrence is not intended to attack other countries, but for self-defense.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2003)