North Korea said today it would conduct its first-ever nuclear test and blamed a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand.
The statement by North Korea's foreign ministry, which was carried on the official KCNA News Agency, was immediately condemned by Japan as called "totally unforgivable".
Its announcement capped weeks of rumours that the Stalinist state was planning a test and came amid increasingly bitter relations with the outside world after it test-fired missiles in July.
"The US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK [North Korea] to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defence," the statement said.
But it added that North Korea would never use nuclear weapons first and would "do its utmost to realise the denuclearisation of the peninsula and give impetus to the worldwide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons".
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile.