[...]U.S. officials say that during a break in the talks, a North Korean delegate pulled aside the senior U.S. official and declared that his country has nuclear weapons and might export them or conduct a "physical demonstration." Though it was not clear whether the North Koreans truly had such weapons, the statement caused an uproar in Washington; President Bush responded that the North was "back to the old blackmail game."


North Korean officials also asserted they had nearly completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium, a fact not yet confirmed by U.S. intelligence.[...]