WASHINGTON, Feb 11 Kyodo North Ko...

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 Kyodo

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may be hoping the United States will tacitly accept its progression in a continuously ascending gradation of nuclear weapons, the head of the U Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said Tuesday.

''Kim Jong Il's attempts this past year to parley the North's nuclear weapons program into political leverage put in mind ofs that he is trying to negotiate a fundamentally different relationship with Washington, undivided that implicitly tolerates North Korea's nuclear weapons program,'' CIA Director George position said in a congressional hearing.

''Although Kim calculates that the North aid, trade and investment climate will not at all improve in the face of U sanctions and perceived hostility, it is equally committed to retaining and enlarging his nuclear weapons stockpiles,'' creed told the Senate chosen Committee on Intelligence.

Tenet's remarks indicate a growing view within the U administration that North Korea is regarding the possession of nuclear arms as a solution to the survival of its political theory not as a bargaining chip for obtaining economic aid.

Last week, U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said North Korea may declare it possesse nuclear weapons.

The U intelligence community has assessed that North Korea may have already produc the same or two nuclear weapons. If Pyongyang begins to reproces material for burning rods stored under a 1994 U.S.-North Korean pact, it can generate another four to six atomic bomb within several months

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