North Korea can produce uranium-based nuclear bomb

North Korea has made progress in its nuclear weapons program to a level that it can produce weapons-grade uranium to make a bomb on its own, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said Wednesday. Yonhap News Agency reported, "We evaluate that North Korea can build a nuclear weapon using uranium," Kim said during an interpellation session at the National Assembly, giving a rare assessment on the reclusive nation's nuclear program, according to the report. In regard to North Korea's 5-megawatt reactor that was reactivated in April, Kim said Seoul is closely monitoring activities at the Yongbyon complex where a uranium enrichment plant and a reactor are located. North Korea aims to become a "nuclear weapon state" to take the initiative in the six-party nuclear freeze deal and consolidate power domestically, Kim said. The six-party talks, involving North and South Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since late 2008. Pyongyang has conducted three nuclear tests of increasing power since 2006, most recently in February; it is not yet known whether the recent test involved plutonium or a uranium-based device. The North is believed to have a handful of crude plutonium-based bombs, and Seoul officials believe it is ready to conduct the fourth test any time at its test site in the northeastern tip. The development further complicates the long-stalled efforts to stop a nuclear program that Pyongyang has vowed to expand, despite international condemnation and sanctions already placed on the impoverished state.