"Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase," the communist state's official Korean Central News Agency said.

"Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponised," the agency quoted its permanent representative to the United Nations as saying.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," the representative was quoted as saying in a letter Thursday to the president of the UN Security Council.

The North for years denied it was operating a secret enriched uranium bomb-making programme in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation.

But a day after the UN imposed tougher sanctions in June following its May 25 nuclear test, the North vowed to start an enriched uranium programme and to extract plutonium from the fuel rods at its Yongbyon reactor.

The North's UN representative said he was responding to a letter from the world body's sanctions committee "requesting a clarification."

No details were given. UN diplomats said last month that the United Arab Emirates had seized a ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran and had informed the sanctions committee.

The North in its letter said it would never be bound by Resolution 1874 passed June 12, which imposed the tighter sanctions and authorised UN members to search ships suspected of carrying banned weapons.

"We do not feel, therefore, any need to respond to the request made by the UNSC 'committee'," it said, terming the resolution unfair.

The North said that if some Security Council members continue to put sanctions before dialogue, it would be forced "to take yet stronger self-defensive countermeasures" -- an apparent reference to a third nuclear test or a new long-range missile launch.

Pyongyang quit six-nation nuclear disarmament talks after the UN censured its April 5 rocket launch, and vowed to restart its bomb-making programme based on plutonium.

It staged its second nuclear test the following month.

As the United States presses for tough enforcement of Resolution 1874, the North has begun making a series of conciliatory gestures.

In August it freed two US journalists and five South Koreans, eased border crossings with the South, sent representatives to talks in Seoul and expressed willingness for direct discussions with Washington to end the nuclear standoff.

The North said Friday it had never objected to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but the six-way talks had been used to "violate outrageously" its sovereignty.

"The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is closely related with the US nuclear policy toward the DPRK (North Korea)," it added.

The United States says bilateral talks must be held in the six-party context. Its envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth is visiting the region for talks aimed at restarting the six-party process.

In a relatively mildly-worded statement, the North blamed its second nuclear test on the UN's "high-handed" criticism of its April 5 rocket launch.

It says the launch put a peaceful satellite into space, while the United States and others saw a disguised long-range missile test.

The North complained that the UN had failed to censure South Korea for its rocket launch last month, which involved an unsuccessful satellite launch.

Seoul plays down NKorea's conciliatory gestures
South Korea on Wednesday played down a series of peace overtures from North Korea, saying the communist state is still unwilling to resume talks on giving up its nuclear weaponry.

Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek noted the North's conciliatory moves in recent weeks after months of hardline actions, including numerous missile launches and a nuclear test.

"But I believe it was a tactical, not fundamental, change because nothing has changed in its attitude toward six-party talks and the nuclear issue," Hyun told a seminar with ruling party lawmakers.

After reaching a six-party disarmament deal in 2007, the North quit the forum in April in protest at the UN Security Council's decision to censure its long-range rocket launch that month.

In May it staged its second nuclear test, incurring international anger and tougher UN sanctions.

The policy change became noticeable in early August when former US president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang and met leader Kim Jong-Il, who pardoned two American journalists sentenced to jail for illegal entry.

The North has since released five detained South Koreans, lifted border restrictions on its neighbour and agreed to allow more reunions for families divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It sent envoys to Seoul last month for talks with President Lee Myung-Bak on improving relations.

On Wednesday the two sides restored a military hotline in the west of the peninsula.

Minister Hyun said recent developments have put inter-Korean relations only back to where they were.

"I don't see the North's moves as a sign they have altered their stance," he said. "The measures have only returned things back to normal."

North Korea is keen to hold bilateral discussions with Washington on ending the nuclear standoff. The US says such talks must be held within the six-nation framework, which also groups China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

US envoy Stephen Bosworth will arrive in Seoul on Friday as part of his Asia trip aimed at ending the nuclear standoff, Yonhap news agency said, quoting diplomatic sources.

The envoy and Sung Kim, another US pointment on North Korea, will also visit Japan and China, it said. The South's foreign ministry declined to confirm the report.

Some analysts say the North's latest goodwill gestures may aim to undermine international efforts to enforce the UN sanctions.

Hyun restated his call for the North to denuclearise during a forum later in the day on possible peaceful uses for the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which splits the peninsula.

"Discussion on the peaceful use of the DMZ will gain momentum when the fundamental security threat of North Korean nuclear weapons disappear from the Korean peninsula," he said.

"We should discuss joint projects in the DMZ through dialogue" between the two governments, Hyun said.

The four-kilometre-wide (2.5-mile) zone, undeveloped for more than half a century, has become an ecologically rich area.

A visiting US congressman told the forum it was up to North and South to remake the zone.

"Nature has already taken its stand, marking the DMZ as a treasured ecological site and wildlife sanctuary where species once endangered now flourish," said Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin Faleomavaega, chairman of a house environmental subcommittee.

"From nature, we might learn what the DMZ can become," he said.

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