N. Korea says will 'fully reconsider nuclear issue'

North Korea said Friday it has no choice but to "fully reconsider the nuclear issue" after strongly condemning South Korea and the United States for attempting to destroy statues of its founding leader Kim Il-sung.

  The statement by a spokesman at the North's foreign ministry didn't elaborate on what it meant by the reconsideration of the nuclear issue, but concerns persist that Pyongyang may conduct a third nuclear test following the botched rocket launch in April.

  Earlier in the day, North Korea's media reported that a North Korean defector named Jon Yong-chol was arrested by the North for allegedly attempting to destroy the statues of Kim Il-sung.

  According to the North's Korean Central News Agency, Jon said he was ordered by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities to launch the attacks, claims flatly denied by Seoul.

  "The relevant situation forces us to fully reconsider the nuclear issue," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by KCNA, calling the case "the most serious act of hostility toward" North Korea.

  "Denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula is becoming more far-off because of hostile policy by the U.S. against North Korea," the spokesman said.

  After the failed rocket launch in April, North Korea said it had no plans to conduct another nuclear test "at present," but officials and analysts in Seoul have said that Pyongyang is technically prepared to carry out such a test. 

  In the conference, which the North said was attended by foreign press correspondents and also covered by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, Jon claimed he was lured by a group of North Korean defectors in the South, the South's spy unit and the U.S. to steal back into the communist country to launch the attacks.

  "This is the most serious act of hostility toward the DPRK (North Korea) and the most hideous politically-motivated terrorism," KCNA said in a separate report. (Yonhap News)