Defector Suggests N. Korea Has Atom Arms, Paper Says

North Korea could turn the capitalist South into a “sea of flames” and scorch Japan in a nuclear attack, a top defector from the North was quoted as saying in a leading Seoul newspaper Tuesday.

Hwang Jang Yop’s reported disclosure is the strongest suggestion so far that North Korea has developed tactical nuclear weapons. The isolated Communist nation has denied having a nuclear weapons program.

South Korea’s Agency for National Security Planning said Hwang made the allegations in a secret report he wrote in August, before his Feb. 12 defection in Beijing. The agency would not say how it obtained the report.

Among other sensational assertions, the document said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il worships Adolf Hitler and often uses the German word blitzkrieg, meaning lightning attack.

It said North Korea has planted a vast network of spies in the South.

“The North can turn the South into a sea of flames and annihilate it by using nuclear and chemical weapons and rockets,” the document said.

“The North believes if it wages war it will no doubt win, and if the United States intervenes, it plans to scorch Japan, although reaching mainland America would be questionable.”

It was not certain whether the ambiguous phrasing was intended to convey the message that North Korea definitely has a nuclear bomb, and diplomats urged caution.

“I wouldn’t take it as gospel,” said one Western envoy. “I’m not certain Hwang would have been in the right position to have that kind of information.”

One of 12 members of the North’s highest decision-making body, Hwang is the top North Korean official ever to defect. When he arrived in South Korea on Sunday, he declared that the North’s leaders have abandoned hope for their impoverished nation, are not interested in dialogue with the South and have set the nation on course for war.