The U.S. government has reaffirmed that it does not recognize North Korea’s move to describe itself as a nuclear power in its recently revised Constitution.

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. government has long adhered to a position that it will never accept the North as a nuclear state.

Toner noted that in the September 19th, 2005 Joint Statement, the North agreed to abolish all of its nuclear weapons and programs. He stressed that the North needs to fulfill that promise.

The North has declared itself a nuclear state since 2005. While revising its Constitution last month, North Korea stated in the preface that it is a nuclear power and that achievement was realized by its late leader Kim Jong-il.

The U.S. believes that although the North has nuclear materials, including plutonium and enriched uranium, it has yet to produce nuclear weapons.