“We have decided to immediately suspend disabling our nuclear facilities,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying. “This measure has been effective on Aug. 14 and related parties have been notified of it,” the official said. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played down the North Korean announcement.

“We actually are in discussions with the North Koreans and I think we’ll just see where we come out in a few weeks,” Rice said, speaking in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Rice said Washington had made it very clear in disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, China, Japan and the United States that it was awaiting a verification mechanism that could assure the accuracy of North Korea’s statement.

Analysts said that given North Korea’s deep reluctance to give up its nuclear weapons program — the one powerful negotiating card it has with the outside world — its latest move was no big surprise.

“North Korea is trying to muddle through and delay as much as possible,” said Lee Dong-bok, a senior associate at the CSIS think tank in Seoul. “At the same time, this is a last-ditch effort trying to somehow influence U.S. presidential politics.”

The KCNA announcement coincided with the start of the U.S. Democratic Party’s convention to formally choose its presidential candidate.

It was also made just after Chinese President Hu Jintao, whose government is the nearest the reclusive North has to an ally, flew out of Seoul after two days of talks with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Lee came to office earlier this year with a promise to get tough on the North if it did not move towards giving up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

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