Special report: Six-party talks -- 5th round
Related: Bush reaffirms preemptive strategy 
              DPRK urges US to lift financial sanctions 
              DPRK denounces US, ROK drills

    PYONGYANG, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday vowed to build nuclear armed forces for self-defense against possible U.S. preemptive nuclear attack.

    A signed commentary of the DPRK's official newspaper Minju Joson denounced a U.S. national security strategy report, which regards the DPRK as an "outpost of tyranny."

    U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated the preemptive policy, which he first outlined in 2002, in his 49-page long national security strategy report released on March 16.

    "Under such situation where the U.S.-threatened preemptive nuclear attack was impending in actuality, the DPRK had no other option but to make a bold decision to build nuclear armed forces for self-defence," said the commentary.

    The paper said that the U.S. strategy shifted its foreign policy away from decades of deterrence and containment toward a more aggressive stance of attacking enemies before they attack the United States.

    "As soon as it took office, the Bush administration newly adopted its nuclear strategy focused on the DPRK and started posing undisguised threat of nuclear attack against the DPRK," said the Minju Joson.

    In the commentary, Pyongyang was also strongly against the financial sanction imposed by the U.S. last October before the second phase of the fourth round of six-party talks.

    "At the crucial moment when both sides were to move in actuality toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the United States took financial sanctions against the DPRK" under such unreasonable pretexts as counterfeit notes and money laundering, added the Minju Joson.

    The DPRK has denied the U.S. allegations and ruled out participation in a new round of disarmament negotiations until the sanctions are lifted. Enditem