Commenting on Pyongyang's pledge Monday to abandon its atomic weapons in exchange for energy and security guarantees, the head of the North Korean delegation to the UN General Assembly said: "what is most essential at this stage is for the United States to provide light-water reactors to the DPRK (North Korea) as soon as possible."

"There will be no need for the DPRK to keep a single nuclear weapon if the DPRK-US relations are normalized, bilateral confidence is built and the DPRK is not exposed to the US nuclear threat any longer," Choe Su Hon told the assembly.

"We will watch closely how the United States will move in actuality at the phase of action for action," he added.

With the United States in mind, Choe said that "unilateral use of force can never be justified in any case."

"Actions such as authorizing countries to launch pre-emptive attacks on the pretext of preventing conflicts should not be construed as strengthening the collective security system of the UN and therefore should be rejected," he added.

He claimed that his country was threatened with nuclear weapons by the United States and therefore "has no alternative than to possess strong legitimate self-defense means."

After two years of six-party negotiations, North Korea on Monday agreed to a statement of principles on abandoning its atomic weapons in return for energy and security guarantees.

But on Tuesday the Stalinist nation warned it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons until the United States delivered light-water reactors to allow it to generate power.

Washington says the reactors would be discussed only after North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons in a verifiable manner.

The Beijing talks brought together North Korea, the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

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