North Korea claims it has finished manufacturing two to three nuclear bombs.

That’s from Japan’s Nihon Keizai daily, which cited an aide to Governor Bill Richardson of the U.S. state of New Mexico following Richardson's visit to North Korea in October.

According to the official, Pyongyang told the governor that it had removed spent nuclear fuel rods from a graphite-moderated reactor in Yongbyon in April and had finished the rods' reprocessing.

The newspaper said it is the first time for the North to publicly claim to possess a specific number of nuclear weapons since its atomic ambitions were exposed to the world in 2002.

The paper analyzed that Pyongyang’s action might be aimed at securing it the upper hand at negotiations with the U.S. at the six-party nuclear talks.

Washington believes Pyongyang has extracted enough plutonium to produce six to eight nuclear weapons.