North Korea now has enough plutonium to make 10 nuclear bombs, South Korea said yesterday, a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said it was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea, which has carried out five nuclear tests and numerous missile launches, is thought to be planning a nuclear push this year, as it seeks to develop a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland.
RAPID PROGRESS
Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realizing its full nuclear ambitions, but all agree it has made enormous strides since Kim took over as leader from his father, who died in December 2011.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense said the North is believed to have about 50kg of weapons-grade plutonium as of the end of last year — enough to make about 10 weapons — up from 40kg eight years earlier.
Pyongyang also has a “considerable” ability to produce weapons based on highly enriched uranium, it said in a two-yearly white paper, but did not estimate weapons-grade uranium stocks, citing impenetrable secrecy in the state’s uranium program.
US think tank the Institute for Science and International Security estimated in June that the North’s total nuclear arsenal was more than 21 bombs, up from 10 to 16 weapons in 2014, based on estimates of plutonium and uranium.
REACTIVATION
The North has boosted plutonium supplies by reactivating its once-mothballed nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, the ministry said.
North Korea deactivated the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after Pyongyang’s third nuclear test in 2013. The type of plutonium suitable for a nuclear bomb typically needs to be extracted from spent nuclear reactor fuel.
Kim said in a New Year’s speech that Pyongyang was in the “final stages” of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile of the kind that could threaten US territory.
The address drew a swift response from US president-elect Donald Trump, who took to Twitter vowing to halt Pyongyang in its tracks.
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