The colourful "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has claimed North Korea may have perfected a nuclear weapon and long-range missile warheads, according to Al Jazeera English.

Khan, a gifted scientist but shady individual, is believed to have sold nuclear technology to North Korea.

"No doubt they are quite capable and they can do it," Khan told the channel. "They can even build an [intercontinental ballistic missile] if they want to."

Khan admitted the North's missile technology is "crude" and "not as sophisticated as the western countries have. But sometimes a crude system will also work. It is good enough to frighten other people."

Khan is revered as a national hero by some in Pakistan but spent years under house arrest for selling nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran.

But in the latest interview he claimed North Korea "got all their engineers and scientists trained in China and the Soviet Union in this field."

Turning to Irans suspected nuclear arms program, he called the allegations Western "propaganda," on a par with Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction that duped a number of UN member states into backing the U.S. invasion in 2003.

