A top North Korean official says Pyongyang has turned the enriched uranium from eight-thousand spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons to serve as a deterrent against a possible nuclear strike by the United States.

North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon told the U-N General Assembly in New York Monday that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula "is snowballing" and blamed the United States for intensifying threats to attack the communist nation. Choe also denounced Washington for allegedly destroying the basis for negotiations to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Choe said his country has been left with "no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent" because of U.S. policies that he claimed were designed to eliminate North Korea by force while designating it as part of an 'axis of evil' and a target of pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

Asked if the fuel had been turned into actual weapons, not just weapons-grade material, Choe said that his country "weaponized" the reprocessed material.

However, Choe was quick to add that the North is still ready to dismantle its nuclear program if Washington abandons its "hostile policy" and is prepared to coexist peacefully.