N. Korea says it has ‘weaponized’ its plutonium stocks

North Korean officials claim they have “weaponized” their stockpile of plutonium, a U.S. scholar said Saturday, a development that could badly complicate talks to end the regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Selig Harrison, speaking to reporters after he arrived in Beijing from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said that the North Koreans had considerably hardened their negotiating positions and that the prospects for President-elect Barack Obama to make a breakthrough in talks were “gloomy.”

North Korea’s belligerent mood was underscored by a fresh threat Saturday against South Korea.

In a statement delivered over the official media, a North Korean army spokesman warned that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his “puppet military war hawks” had “driven our revolutionary armed forces to take a strong step to wipe them out.”

The North’s blustery propaganda machine issues so many threats that they are normally shrugged off, but this one was unusual in that it came directly from the army, which does not usually issue statements.

Harrison believes that hard-liners within the North Korean military have strengthened their hand recently because of the poor health of leader Kim Jong Il. The 67-year-old is reported to be recovering from a stroke suffered last summer.

“He is now making the key decisions, but he is not dealing on a day-to-day basis with details,” Harrison said. “This helps to explain the shift to a much harder line on nuclear negotiations.”

Harrison is a former journalist who has sometimes been used by Pyongyang to relay messages to Washington. He has traveled frequently to North Korea since 1972 and is one of the few who has interviewed Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder and father of the current leader.

Among the officials Harrison met with over four days in Pyongyang were Li Gun, a senior Foreign Ministry official, and Ri Chan-bok, a general and spokesman for the military.

The North Koreans told him that they had already “weaponized” their stockpile of 67.8 pounds of plutonium. The amount of plutonium is sufficient to build four or five nuclear warheads to be mounted on missiles.

In October, North Korea had disclosed the amount of plutonium in its stockpile, but it had been hoped that the plutonium had not yet been developed into weapons and therefore could be more easily given up in negotiations.

“The North Koreans are saying in effect that ‘we are a nuclear weapons state’ and you have to deal with us on that basis,” Harrison said.

The North Koreans also told him that they wouldn’t consider dismantling their nuclear program until after the United States normalized diplomatic relations; that they want construction to resume on a light-water nuclear reactor to provide electricity; and that they would demand inspections of U.S. military bases in South Korea if they allow inspections in their own country.

“They have raised the bar,” Harrison said.

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barbara.demick@latimes.com