The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) withdraws from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Wepaons (NPT), the Korean Central Broadcasting Station announced on Friday, a move that further escalated the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang had hinted in late Dec. that it would drop out of the pact.

The DPRK joined the NPT in Dec. 1985. Pyongyang withdrew from the NPT in March 1993 but returned to the pact in October 1994 under the Agreed Framework reached by the United States and DPRK in Geneva.

(Xinhua News Aagency January 10, 2003)