"The Federation of American Scientists of the United States has confirmed (North) Korea as a nuclear weapon state," the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch. The report said the non-profit organization's November issue listed the North among the nine countries that possess atomic weapons.

The United States and other countries have refused to recognize North Korea as nuclear state to avoid lending legitimacy to its atomic weapons program.

Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test in May, and is set to hold its first bilateral talks with the Barack Obama administration when U.S. special representative for North Korea policy Stephen Bosworth visits North Korea on Dec. 8.

Bosworth is widely expected to meet with Kang Sok-ju, the North's first vice foreign minister and de-facto orchestrator of the country's negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.

Earlier this month, North Korea claimed it has completed extracting plutonium from 8,000 spent fuel rods it has at its main nuclear facility. Experts say the amount would be enough to make one nuclear bomb.

North Korea withdrew from a six-nation disarmament talks in April in protest of punitive U.N. resolutions adopted after its long-range rocket test.

2009.11.27