Pyongyang, Nov 3 (THAINDIAN NEWS) North Korea said on Tuesday that, ‘it has reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile’, raising the stakes in an apparent bid to push the U.S. into direct negotiations.

North Korea has demanded direct and immediate talks with the US to solve the protracted standoff over the regime’s often-debated nuclear program.

Washington has said that, “it is willing to meet one-on-one with the North if the talks lead to the resumption of six-nation negotiations involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia.” U.S. had held discussions with a North Korean envoy and a U.S. official last week, but they did not agree to an agreement to hold talks, both sides said.

On Monday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned “if the U.S. is not ready to sit at a negotiating table with the (North), it will go its own way,” which was an apparent threat to increase its nuclear arsenal by leaps and bounds.