Pakistan said it was sharing with other countries information divulged by disgraced top scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, but refused comment on a report he had visited a secret underground plant in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and seen nuclear devices.

　　The New York Times reported this week that Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, told interrogators he inspected the weapons briefly during a trip to North Korea five years ago. If true, it would be the first time that any foreigner has reported inspecting an actual North Korean nuclear weapon, the newspaper said.

　　The report cited unnamed Asian and American officials who have been briefed by the Pakistanis.

　　Khan, regarded as a national hero for helping Pakistan obtain a nuclear deterrent against rival India, confessed in February to transferring sensitive technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

　　He received a pardon from Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally, but remains under house arrest in Islamabad as investigators continue a probe into his illicit nuclear deals.

　　Jon Wolfsthal, who served as a US government monitor at North Korea's main plutonium site in the 1990s, said Washington has believed for more than a decade that North Korea had enough material for one or two bombs.

　　Khan is not a credible source, however, Wolfsthal said.

　　"A.Q. Khan is a liar, and he's doing whatever he feels necessary to protect his own interests and protect the government that has pardoned him," said Wolfsthal, now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

　　"One way of doing that is saying, 'It doesn't matter what we sold to North Korea because they had weapons already,'" he said.

　　Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Tuesday that Pakistan had shared information arising from its investigations of Khan to other countries, but he did not elaborate.

　　"We have investigated scientists. We are in touch with the world," he told a press conference in Islamabad.

　　Pakistani officials have previously said they have offered information on the investigation to China, Japan, South Korea, as well as the United States and the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

　　The Times said in its report on Tuesday that Pakistan has begun to provide classified briefings to nations within reach of North Korea's missiles.

　　The CIA believes that North Korea already has one or two nuclear bombs, although some US intelligence analysts believe it may have more.

　　A South Korean official confirmed on Tuesday its government had received information linked to the Times report from Pakistan and "related countries."

　　"But we are trying to further confirm it as there are many unclear points about its contents and circumstances," the official said on condition of anonymity in Seoul.

　　A Japanese Foreign Ministry official, who also did not want to be named, said the government was aware of the report and was cooperating with other countries to gather information about North Korea's nuclear activities.

　　Pakistan denies any official involvement in nuclear proliferation, though doubts remain over how military and government officials remained in the dark for years over Khan's activities.

　　(The Associated Press)