A fellow at the U.S. Congressional Research Service says North Korea has weapons-grade plutonium that can produce nuclear weapons in addition to the one or two it is presumed to possess.

In a report posted on the service's Web site last month, Larry Niksch said that the North may just hold onto the plutonium as it lacks the technology to make the weapons small enough for transport.

He said it's open to question whether Pyeongyang produced additional weapons since 2003 after it acquired plutonium from reprocessing eight thousand rods of spent nuclear fuel. The answer would depend on whether the North can make nuclear warheads small enough to put on the missiles.

Niksch also said that experts believe the one or two nuclear weapons that the North may possess are similar to the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki during World War Two. But he added that North Korea has barely any means to deliver a weapon to a target.

He also said the communist state will try to protract the nuclear standoff until the end of the Bush administration while it continues its nuclear development. Its ultimate goal would be to win global recognition as a nuclear power.