This article promises good times ahead. I have to wonder, though, who wrote this piece of shit? It's like it was written by a retard.

N Korea 'admits nuclear programme'

North Korea has admitted that it has a secret nuclear weapons programme, US government officials say.

North Korea's secret nuclear weapons programme is a serious violation of North Korea's commitments

American officials said the North Koreans told a visiting US delegation earlier this month that they no longer felt bound by a 1994 accord, under which they agreed to halt their suspected weapons programme in return for American aid.

The North Korean confession made the US administration conclude that negotiations with Pyongyang were impossible for the moment, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"The United States and our allies call on North Korea to comply with its commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and to eliminate its nuclear weapons programme in a verifiable manner," Mr Boucher said.

But he added that Washington was seeking a peaceful resolution to the situation and called on the "peace-loving nations in the region to deal effectively with this challenge".

South Korea President Kim Dae-jung described the matter as "grave" but said he believed the North wanted to solve the issue through dialogue.

US-North Korean relations have always been fraught

The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, called on Pyongyang to "erase nuclear suspicions honestly". But Japanese officials said normalisation talks with North Korea would not be derailed.

Reclusive North Korea is one of three states dubbed an "axis of evil" by US President George W Bush, along with Iran and Iraq.

However, in recent months there has been a thaw in Pyongyang's dealings with the outside world.

Earlier this month Mr Bush sent Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly to North Korea for security talks.

North Korea reportedly confessed to its nuclear programme after Mr Kelly presented American documentary "evidence" on the issue.

James Kelly reportedly produced evidence of the plans

At first the North Koreans tried to deny the evidence, but eventually "they acknowledged they had a secret nuclear weapons programme involving enriched uranium," one official said.

"By acknowledging that, the agreed framework was essentially nullified," he said, referring to the 1994 Agreed Framework under which in return for halting its weapons programme North Korea was given US assistance in building two light water reactors.

US officials say the Bush administration is now consulting with its allies and Congress before deciding what to do in light of the revelation.

After news of the North Korean confession emerged South Korea urged Pyongyang to abide by international anti-nuclear agreements and to try to resolve the issue through dialogue.

"All these issues should be resolved through dialogue and peacefully, and we will continue to strengthen co-operative consultations with the United States and Japan," South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik said.

"The South Korean Government will raise this issue in bilateral South-North dialogue channels," he added.

Recently both South Korea and Japan have adopted a policy of engagement with North Korea.

After months of tension the North and South have resumed talks aimed at reconciliation on the peninsula, which was divided at the end of the Korean War.

And last month Junichiro Koizumi became Japan's first prime minister to visit the North.

During his visit North Korea made the startling admission that it had kidnapped a number of Japanese citizens in the past for use in their spy programme.