Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – South Korea's Foreign Ministry downplayed North Korea's announcement that it had nuclear weapons and that it was withdrawing from the six-way talks saying that it was a ploy to enhance its bargaining position.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik said that this was nothing new: "The North's move appears to be aimed at improving its negotiating power." However, he added that "the problem could get serious if North Korea takes additional actions" such as reprocessing more spent fuel rods from a 5-megawatt nuclear reactor it reactivated last year.

Nuclear experts are convinced that that reactor could produce enough plutonium for several bombs.

The South Koreans are also concerned that the North might sell nuclear material to other countries or to terrorist groups.

In a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry, North Korea blamed a 'hostile' US for its nuclear arms development and declared that it would not take part in any future six-way talks for an indefinite period.

The talks, which started in 2003, were intended to dismantle the Communist nation's nuclear installations. In addition to the two Koreas and the US, Japan, Russia and China are party to the discussions.

In the meantime, as the international crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme deepens, further evidence is emerging of the atrocities committed by the regime of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il.

The 'Commission to Help North Korean Refugees', a private, Seoul-based NGO, reported that 70 North Korean nationals arrested in China and repatriated were executed by their own government.

Anonymous sources in the two countries said that seven or eight of these refugees were put to death in public to discourage others from trying to slip across the border into China.

The People's Republic of China is the only country with some influence over North Korea and has accepted to consider North Korean refugees as illegal immigrants. However, North Koreans fleeing to China do so to escape their country's brutal repression and widespread hunger.

In the last few weeks, the North Korean government has worsened the situation by reducing the daily food ration to 250 grams, half of what is considered the average minimum to sustain human life.

Unofficially, there are an estimated 300,000 North Korean refugees in China, who are in constant danger of expulsion from China and execution back home.