A South Korean intelligence report made public Tuesday acknowledged that North Korea may have already built one or two nuclear bombs, but emphasized that it probably does not have the technical capability to mount the weapons on missiles, news reports said. The report was released by South Korea(0x2019)s National Intelligence Service (NIS) to parliament. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed legislator as saying intelligence officials believe North Korea could use an airplane to transport nuclear warheads. A nuclear bomb that Pyongyang could construct would have approximately the same explosive power as the one dropped on the Japanese city Hiroshima in 1945, the intelligence report said. The report comes just days after North Korea officially declared it had already produced nuclear weapons for self defense purposes and announced it was boycotting further six-nation talks on its nuclear programme because of a "hostile" U.S. policy. The report submitted to parliament contradicted comments by South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong Young on Monday indicating there was no concrete evidence to back up Pyongyang's claim. Chung told parliament on Monday that in addition to a lack of direct evidence, North Korea had not conducted any nuclear tests, concluding that it was too early to label the reclusive communist state a nuclear power.
