The present invention relates to an exhaust emission control device having an NOx adsorbent, and makes it possible to judge whether the performance of the NOx adsorbent is degraded temporarily or permanently. The amounts of NOx and water adsorbed by the NOx adsorbent are measured during an actual operation of an internal combustion engine. A reference line indicating the correlation between a preselected water adsorption amount and NOx adsorption amount is then referenced to determine a reference value y0 of the NOx adsorption amount that corresponds to a measured value x1 of the water adsorption amount. Next, a measured value y1 of the NOx adsorption amount is compared against the reference value y0 to output a signal in which the result of the comparison is reflected.