A North Korean diplomat said Friday that Pyongyang will not negotiate over its nuclear weapons and called on the U.S. to accept the North's nuclear power status.
 
Choe Son-hui, director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s North America department, made the remark at the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference during a session on Northeast Asian security. 
 
She is attending the Moscow conference as chief of a Foreign Ministry think tank on U.S. affairs.
 
She argued that North Korea was living under constant U.S. threat and raised the example of a recent "nuclear exercise" mobilizing a U.S. aircraft carrier and strategic bombers.
 
She said it was a matter of life and death for North Korea and the current situation further strengthens Pyongyang’s belief that nuclear weapons are necessary to fend off potential attacks.
 
Choe said the North has nearly reached a balance of power with the United States and that its ultimate goal is to achieve a power equilibrium so the U.S. cannot threaten any military action against Pyongyang.
 
During the conference, Robert Carlin, who formerly served as a North Korea intelligence adviser at the State Department, noted that North Korea says it is developing nuclear weapons to deter threats from the U.S. but it already possesses nukes.
 
He was reported to have criticized North Korea’s nuclear weapon program as not a deterrence but a destabilizing factor in the region.

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