North Korea's new constitution proclaims its status as a nuclear-armed nation, complicating international efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon atomic weapons, AFP reported Thursday.

The revised constitution says on the country's official Web portal Naenara (My Country) that late leader Kim Jong-il had "transferred the country into an undefeated country with strong political ideology, a nuclear power state and invincible military power," according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Under a September 2005 deal reached during the Six-Party Talks with China, South Korea, the US, Japan and Russia, Pyongyang agreed to dismantle its nuclear programs in return for economic and diplomatic benefits. But talks on implementing the deal have stalled since December 2008, with the North staging nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

"Proclaiming nuclear status in the constitution will escalate the nuclear issue," Lü Chao, director of the North and South Korea Research Center at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times. "It will allegedly see a nuclear Korean Peninsula and would spark a nuclear arms race around the world."

Washington made clear Wednesday that it would "never recognize North Korea as a nuclear state." Seoul also publicized its stance that North Korea "can't have" the status of a nuclear nation.

North Korea has been clashing with the West over its nuclear and missile programs for decades. Its April 13 long-range rocket launch was seen by the US, South Korea and Japan as a disguised missile test, while some Chinese experts viewed it as a performance demonstrating North Korea's national strength and cohesion following Kim's death in December.

Shi Yinhong, a professor from the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that North Korea's move would embarrass other members of the Six-Party Talks framework.

An opinion piece published in yesterday's edition of The Korea Times calls for the international community to consider a new approach toward North Korea. Shi said relevant countries would have to push harder on North Korea, and a UN sanction on North Korea is not unlikely. Meanwhile, China's stance of a non-nuclear Korea Peninsula will not change.

Agencies contributed to this story