North Korea said it would not abandon its...

"We will produce as many nuclear weapons as we think necessary, but we will neither participate in the nuclear arms race nor produce them in excess," the agency quoted a memorandum issued by the North Korean foreign ministry as saying.

The ministry said the North was ready to "take part in international efforts on nuclear disarmament on an equal footing with other nuclear weapons states."

Russia, the United States, France, China and the United Kingdom are considered to be nuclear weapons states (NWS), an internationally recognized status conferred by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which came into force in 1970.

North Korea claims to be a nuclear weapons state after conducting two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, though the status has never been internationally confirmed. It withdrew from the NPT treaty in 2003.

"Assuming equal positions of all nuclear weapons states, we are ready to join forces with the international community in nuclear non-proliferation

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