US and South Korean forces can deter and defeat North Korea even if the reclusive communist state has several nuclear weapons, a senior US military officer said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. Amid growing signs stalled six-country talks on those weapons could restart, South Korea's foreign minister said regional powers trying to coax North Korea back to the table should anticipate a possible resumption of the process.
Seoul sent its unification minister to Washington on Wednesday for talks with senior US officials including Vice President Dick Cheney on the nuclear crisis.
The commander of the US forces in South Korea, General Leon LaPorte, said the US military believed North Korea had one to two nuclear weapons at a minimum, and was also working to advance its missile programme.
"Whether North Korea has one or several nuclear weapons does not change the balance on the peninsula," LaPorte told South Korea's PBC radio in an interview taped on Tuesday, according to a transcript provided by the station.
"The US and the Republic of Korea retain our ability to deter North Korean aggression and, if required, to decisively defeat the North Korean threat if they were to threaten South Korea," he said.
LaPorte said the United States was fully committed to talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons programmes and sought a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Those talks involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.