N Korea vows to bolster nuclear deterrent force

North Korea vowed on Wednesday to strengthen its "nuclear deterrent force," dismissing the United States' call for multilateral talks as a tactic to isolate Pyongyang.

"We will step up the strengthening of our nuclear deterrent force as a justified self-defence measure to counter the threat increasing daily from the US strategy to isolate and stifle North Korea," Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued through the official KCNA news agency.

The Korean-language statement, published by South Korea's Yonhap news agency, said: "We have come to expect nothing from the so-called 'multilateral talks' the United States is aiming for.

"The multilateral talks the United States is calling for clearly is not something to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully, but rather nothing more than a disguise for US moves to isolate and stifle us," it said.

Comments by the North Korean Foreign Ministry are judged by analysts to be more authoritative than the blustery state media threats Pyongyang issues nearly every day, which are generally dismissed as rhetoric.

The North's ruling party mouthpiece, the Rodong Sinmun daily, said on Wednesday: "The Iraqi war proved that disarmament leads to a war. Therefore, it is quite clear that the DPRK (North Korea) can never accept the US demand that it scrap its nuclear weapons program first."

Wednesday's foreign ministry statement came as US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions was of the utmost importance.