N. Korean Nuclear Tensions On Upswing

South Korea's defense chief said Friday that North Korea is likely to have one or two nuclear weapons, amid growing concerns the communist regime may be preparing its first test of an atomic bomb.

Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told a parliamentary meeting that the Seoul government doesn't doubt the North has nuclear weapons.

"North Korea is now estimated to have one or two" nuclear weapons, Yoon said, according to a video of the meeting posted on the National Assembly Web site.

The comment was seen as a change in South Korea's assessment of the North's nuclear capability, with Seoul previously saying only that the North had the capability to build one or two nuclear weapons.

North Korea has claimed it has nuclear weapons, but it is not known if the isolated country has performed any tests confirming its claims. Many experts believe the North has enough radioactive material to build at least half a dozen nuclear weapons.

Concerns about a possible test flared after an American TV network reported last week, citing U.S. officials, that suspicious activity was observed at a possible underground nuclear test site in the North.

The United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have tried to convince the North to abandon its nuclear program, through six-party negotiations that have been on hold since November.

There have been tensions this week as well.

"If North Korea does carry out its nuclear experiment, it will pose a grave threat to Japan, Northeast Asia and the international community," Shinzo Abe, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, said Friday. "It will be absolutely unacceptable."

He declined to confirm or deny reports that Japan has ramped up its surveillance and instead urged Pyongyang to return to the stalled six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament.

"North Korea's nuclear problem should be resolved peacefully through the six party talks," said Abe.

North Korea has refused to return to nuclear disarmament talks until the United States lifts restrictions imposed on the communist regime for its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

South Korea and the United States have urged the hard-line regime to return to the talks without conditions, saying it is a law enforcement issue unrelated to the nuclear standoff.

North Korea lashed out Tuesday at current U.S.-South Korean military drills, saying they nullified the armistice in the 1950-53 Korean War and warning that it may take retaliatory action.

The U.S. and South Korea on Monday launched joint annual military exercises, which the North had previously said would be considered a declaration of war.

The North Korean military "reserves the right to undertake a pre-emptive action for self-defense against the enemy at a crucial time it deems necessary to defend itself," the North's Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea commonly issues heated statements warning that the peninsula stands on the brink of renewed war.

North Korea's army chief on Thursday criticized Washington for what he called a "dastardly and malicious hostile policy" toward the North.

The North regularly uses the term "war deterrent" to refer to its nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. military has said the exercises — mostly simulation-driven drills named "Ulchi Focus Lens" that include some 17,000 troops — are defensive in nature and not a provocation. The exercises run through Sept. 1.

The North's military said it "would not be bound to the (armistice agreement) in taking on its own initiative military measures for protecting the security and sovereignty of the country in the future" in light of the exercises, which it termed a "war action declaring the (armistice) null and void."

The North also described the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last month after its missile launches as tantamount to a declaration of war that the U.S. pushed through "by wire pulling its followers."

However, key North Korean allies China and Russia also signed off on the resolution, which bans U.N. member countries from missile-related dealings with the North, but hasn't resulted in any further actions or relaxation of tension in the region.

The two Koreas remain technically at war, because the armistice has never been replaced by a peace treaty. Under an agreement reached in September at international nuclear talks, all parties agreed to eventually discuss a permanent peace on the peninsula.