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North Korea threatened to review all agreements with the United States over a reported US nuclear strategy which targets seven countries -- including the communist state -- for possible attacks.
The North's foreign ministry warned in a statement late Wednesday that the Stalinist country would have "no option but to take a substantial countermeasure" against the United States.
"We are compelled to examine all the agreements with the United States in case the US plan for a nuclear attack on the DPRK (North Korea) turns out to be true," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
According to leaks to the US media, the US Defense Department's Nuclear Policy Review calls for a shift away from the Cold War posture of using the US nuclear arsenal to deter a nuclear strike from the former Soviet Union.
It sees China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Russia and Syria as potential targets for US nuclear strikes, according to the Los Angeles Times report.
US officials have tried to allay international fears saying the report merely listed options at the disposal of US authorities.
The North slammed the reported US strategy as "a daydream of the reckless persons who do not hesitate to stifle" the communist country by using nuclear weapons.
In a separate statement aired by by state radio stations, the North's foreign ministry inisted that Pyongyang had "faithfully" implemented agreements signed with Washington in 1993 and 1994.
The Cold War enemies issued a joint statement in 1993 to defuse a nuclear crisis triggered by the North's withdrawl from an international nuclear safeguard accord.
In 1994, they signed a landmark agreement under which the North froze its suspected nuclear weapons program. In return, the United States pledged diplomatic and economic incentives.
The 1994 Agreed Framework set the stage for a string of rapprochemment talks between North Korea and the United States.
But the North has threatened to end the 1994 aggreement slamming what it calls a "hostile" policy of US President George W. Bush. It has also rejected Bush's demand for a full inspection of North Korean nuclear facilities.
The North has denounced the United States for delaying a 4.6-billion-dollar project to build two nuclear energy reactors that produce less weapons-grade plutonium.
The reactor project was due to be completed by 2003, but delays have pushed back the finish until at least 2008.
US officials have warned that the construction might suffer further delays if the North refuses to allow checks on its nuclear activities.
The Korean peninsula remains the world's last Cold War frontier after its division into the pro-Western South and the Stalinist North in 1945.
The South is home to some 37,000 US troops. The US has maintained a presence there since the 1950-53 Korean War to deter any attack from the North.