The second nuclear test, however, added to suspicions that the North is moving closer to becoming a fully fledged nuclear-armed state.

Still, as a matter of realpolitik, the administration argued, it has become silly not to acknowledge, at least implicitly, that India is a nuclear-armed state.

The transition had not been completed when he died, prompting fears of a power struggle in the nuclear-armed rogue state.

The list of nuclear-armed states is lengthening alarmingly, and each new entry increases the chances that some nasty regional war could turn nuclear.

A war between nuclear-armed states could reshape the world, changing the atmosphere while killing millions.

A nuclear-armed state, it carried out tests in the 1970s and again in the 1990s in defiance of world opinion.

So is the fact that both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed states.

But they and other nuclear-armed states seem to be looking for ways to limit the new treaty's comprehensiveness.

In return, the nuclear-armed states pledged to negotiate in good faith on effective measures to end the nuclear arms race and disarm.