AFP, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said Friday his country was fully justified in developing missiles and nuclear weapons to counter the threat posed by India.
Concluding a three-day visit to South Korea, Musharraf said Pakistan would never compromise on national security.
“I think we are fully justified in developing our nuclear and missile capability because there was an external threat and if ever that threat arises in any other area … we will again respond to it in a similar manner in the future also,” he told a press conference.
Last month Islamabad test-fired three missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads after warning it would counter India's new purchase of a sophisticated early warning radar system from Israel.
Pakistan and India went public as nuclear powers in May 1998 when they both conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests.
They have fought three wars since Pakistan's creation in 1947 and last year were on the brink of a fourth war which many feared would turn into the world's first nuclear conflict.
In Seoul, Musharraf said India was conducting a massive armaments build-up which had triggered an imbalance in conventional forces that posed a new danger.
“This is dangerous for regional and world peace point of view and I have been highlighting that imbalance in (unconventional) forces being created in our region to all world leaders,” he said
On Thursday Musharraf met South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun for a one-hour summit that covered issues ranging from bilateral trade to the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Musharraf said he supported efforts to end the nuclear crisis through six-way talks bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
He denied that Islamabad had helped North Korea's nuclear weapons drive during his four years in office and said he had no evidence that help had been forthcoming in the past.
“There is absolutely no connection with North Korea on any defense-related matter,” he said.
According to US media reports, Pakistan supplied North Korea with designs for gas centrifuges needed for the production of weapons-grade uranium. The North Koreans deny running a uranium-based programme but say they have built bombs from a plutonium-based programme.
