NK calls itself 'nuclear-armed state' in revised constitution

TOKYO (Yonhap) -- North Korea calls itself a "nuclear-armed state" in its recently revised constitution, according to its full text confirmed on Wednesday in the North's "Naenara" web site.

Following December's death of leader Kim Jong-il, the North has revised its constitution to add three new sentences and one of them contains the term of a nuclear-armed state.

Earlier in the day, a North Korean Web site, monitored in Japan, carried the full text of the reclusive communist nation's amended constitution.

It shows three new sentences that highlight the works of its late leader Kim Jong-il, including "the transformation into a nuclear power."

The contents of the website, named "Naenara (my country)," have not been officially confirmed. It is also unclear when North Korea rewrote its constitution.

Pyongyang has carried out two underground nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, and has sought to be acknowledged as a nuclear state by the international community.

The department official said, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity, North Korea should comply with its international obligations under a 2005 agreement and U.N. Security Council resolutions that call on it to abandon all nuclear weapons.

"The leadership of the DPRK has a very stark choice," the official said. "They must take a hard look at their policies, stop provocative actions, put their people first -- ahead of their ambitions to be a nuclear power, and rejoin the international community.”

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