Japan: DPRK nuclear action "regrettable"

The Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary has said the DPRK's latest nuclear action was "regretable". His remarks came as Pyongyang announced on Tuesday that it has reprocessed 80000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile.

Hirofumi Hirano told a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday that Japan "cannot tolerate" DPRK possessing nuclear weapons, and urged Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks as soon as possible.