Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an interview with CNN that the country will not develop nuclear weapons in response to North Korea's atomic bomb test.

The U.S. and South Korea verified that North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on Oct. 9, an act that some Japanese politicians said warrants discussion over nuclear armament. Shoichi Nakagawa, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy research council, has said the country should debate the issue.

Japan's citizens are free to debate the issue, though the government must not get involved, Abe said in the interview, according to a government spokesman. Japan has a responsibility as the only country ever to suffer an atomic bomb attack to try and rid the world of nuclear weapons, he said.

``We need to take the lead in striving to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the earth,'' he said through a translator in a preview of the interview broadcast on CNN. ``In that context we gave up nuclear weapons as a policy option.''

North Korea must return to six-nation talks aimed as dismantling the communist country's nuclear weapons program unconditionally, Abe said in the full interview, according to the spokesman.

Abe also said that while China may be Japan's economic rival in some areas, growth in both countries was good for the other.

He again declined to say whether he would continue the visits of predecessor Junichiro Koizumi to Yasukuni Shrine, where memorials to Japanese war dead include commemorations to Japanese war criminals. The visits have angered China and South Korea, who view the shrine as glorifying Japanese militarism last century.

To contact the reporter on this story: Keiichi Yamamura in Tokyo at kyamamura@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2006 06:32 EST