The Seoul government analyzed Pyongyang's remark on weaponizing nuclear material as nothing new and no different from North Korea's similar rhetoric in the past.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-Hon claimed Monday that Pyongyang had turned plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons to serve as a deterrent against a possible nuclear strike by the U.S.
A government official said Tuesday there is no evidence of full-fledged reprocessing detected in the communist state, saying it is unlikely that Pyongyang completed the reprocessing of nuke material, as it claimed, considering the time needed for completion and the country's technological capability.
The official added Seoul awaits Pyongyang's further comment on the matter to figure out the real intentions behind the North's latest provocative remark on its nuclear weapons program.