NORTH KOREA announced yesterday it would quit six-nation disarmament talks and resume its nuclear weapons program in protest against the United Nations' condemnation of this month's rocket launch.

It said the Security Council's discussion of what it said was a peaceful satellite launch was "an unbearable insult" to its people. North Korea said it "sternly rejects" the council's action and would strengthen its nuclear deterrent in response.

"There is no need for the six-party [nuclear disarmament] talks any more," said a foreign ministry statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "We will never again take part in such talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks."

North Korea "will strengthen its nuclear deterrent for its defence by all means," it said.

"We will take steps to restore disabled nuclear facilities … and reprocess used fuel rods that came from experimental nuclear reactors."

Analysts said the statement was unusually strong. It came just hours after the Security Council statement of condemnation.

Pyongyang had been disabling plants that produced weapons-grade plutonium as part of a 2007 six-nation deal.

Agence France-Presse