"Both of our governments (Washington and Seoul) think that North Korea's claims are exaggerated, specifically, the argument that it has already completed reprocessing of plutonium, and that it is very close to developing a nuclear weapon," he said in an interview with the ABC television network on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

North Korea, which US intelligence believes to have one or two nuclear bombs, claims it has finished processing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, enough to make about six nuclear devices.

"It is true that there are some indications that North Korea did reprocess a little plutonium," Roh said through a translator.

"But when we look at the analysis, even if they did reprocess the plutonium, it was done on a very small scale, a very small amount. Overall, I don't think their reprocessing is very serious."

Turning to Pyongyang's contention that it is developing a nuclear program to counter US threats and its resulting demand for bilateral talks with Washington, the South Korean leader said: "I think they really need to have some kind of dialogue with the US, even if it's only once."

"So I think that having the trilateral talks and expanding to multilateral talks is a very reasonable option," he added.

Beijing has recently stepped up diplomatic efforts to bring the parties together through multilateral talks and South Korean officials have indicated that these efforts could result in talks as early as next month.

WAR.WIRE