The Associated Press

Tue, Jan 13, 2009 (4:06 a.m.)

North Korea says it will hold onto its nuclear weapons as long as the U.S. backs South Korea with its own atomic arsenal.

The North has long accused Washington of hiding nuclear weapons in South Korea for a possible attack on the communist nation. Both the South and the U.S. deny the accusations.

Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that it wouldn't need its own arsenal once "the U.S. nuclear umbrella over South Korea is gone."

Five regional powers have been trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program but the talks have been stalled for months.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ South Korea plans to send a team of nuclear experts to North Korea this week to survey Pyongyang's unused fuel rods, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The six-member delegation led by Hwang Joon-kook, Seoul's No. 2 envoy for the disarmament talks on the North's nuclear weapons programs, will fly to Pyongyang on Thursday, the ministry said.

The ministry did not say how long the delegation will stay in the North.

Hwang will be the highest-level South Korean official to visit North Korea since the regime suspended reconciliation talks and landmark joint projects with the South to protest Seoul's hard-line policy on Pyongyang.

Despite the soured relations, officials from the two Koreas have met at disarmament talks that also involve the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

During this week's trip, the South Korean experts will scrutinize the unused fuel rods to help determine how to handle them, the ministry said.

The trip is a fact-finding mission, and the delegation will not negotiate any purchase of the rods, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

Pyongyang agreed to export its unused fuel rods during the latest disarmament talks in Beijing in December.

Seoul has said in the past it would consider buying the North's fuel rods if they can be adapted to work in South Korea's power-generating nuclear reactors. South Korea currently has 20 nuclear power plants in operation and four more under construction.

The North has some 14,000 unused fuel rods and has removed about 5,500 of 8,000 spent fuel rods from its main Yongbyon reactor, the Foreign Ministry said.

The spent fuel rods, if reprocessed, could allow the North to harvest weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear bombs.

Regional powers have tried to coax North Korea _ which tested a nuclear device in 2006 _ to abandon its atomic program by offering aid for disarmament. The process has been held up over how to verify Pyongyang's past nuclear activities.

North Korea has completed eight of 11 steps required to disable the Yongbyon complex and has received about half the 1 million tons of fuel oil promised in exchange for disarmament.