North Korea has the world's smallest stockpile of nuclear weapons, with an estimated 60 warheads and production of fissile material for six to seven warheads per year.Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance, Arms_Control_Association (updated August 2020) North Korea is the tenth country to develop and most recent to openly test nuclear weapons. North Korea is also believed to have one of the world's largest chemical weapons stockpiles. North Korea is party to the Biological Weapons Convention, one of four United Nations members not to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the only country to announce withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
North Korea is the only country confirmed to conduct nuclear weapons tests in the 21st century, carrying out six underground tests at Punggye-ri from 2006 to 2017. Via these, North Korea is believed to have developed thermonuclear and boosted fission weapons. Despite its low warhead count, the Korean People's Army Strategic Force is estimated to operate over 363 ballistic missiles; 17 of these are intercontinental-range such as the Hwasong-17, another 27 are intermediate/medium-range such as the Hwasong-12, and the remaining 319 are short-range, primarily the Hwasong-11D. The Force also operates the Hwasal-1/-2 cruise missiles and reportedly tactical nuclear weapons. North Korea is developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles such as the Pukguksong-1 and Hwasong-11S. Its missile development is linked to its satellite program.
Posited motives for North Korean nuclear proliferation include the fall of communism, a wavering alliance with China, desire to deter and/or negotiate with the United States, or its domestic politics. Its program is closely tied to the Korean conflict, which partially stems from the lack of a peace treaty concluding the Korean War; South Korea hosted US nuclear weapons from 1958 to 1991, and pursued a domestic nuclear weapons program from 1970 to 1981.
North Korea had developed nuclear technology at its Nyongbyon facility since the 1960s, with supply from the Soviet Union. After joining the NPT in 1989, it failed to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In 1993, after its noncompliance was reported to the UN Security Council, North Korea announced intent to withdraw from the NPT, triggering a diplomatic crisis. Under a 1994 framework, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear development and suspend its NPT withdrawal, while the US would arrange for construction of two light water reactors in North Korea. The framework collapsed in 2003, when North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors and announced immediate NPT withdrawal. The subsequent six-party talks continued until 2007 but made little progress. North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006 was met with international sanctions.
Subsequent nuclear and missile tests have been internationally provocative, leading to a crisis in 2017–2018.North Korea: Overview, Nuclear_Threat_Initiative (last updated May 2019). In 2024, North Korea signed a security treaty with Russia, gaining sanctions bypasses and potential technology transfer. North Korea has also exported missiles to Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Pakistan, and assisted the construction of the Al Kibar reactor of the Syrian nuclear weapons program. North Korea is widely believed to have a chemical weapons arsenal of up to 5,000 tons, including sarin and mustard gas. Kim Jong Un is widely believed to have ordered the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-nam, which used the chemical nerve agent, VX. It is unclear if North Korea has an offensive biological weapons program, although like many countries it has the industrial capability for one.
History
North Korea showed an interest in developing nuclear weapons as early as the 1950s. The nuclear program can be traced back to about 1962, when North Korea committed itself to what it called "all-fortressization", which was the beginning of the hyper-militarized North Korea of today.. In 1963, North Korea asked the Soviet Union for help in developing nuclear weapons, but was refused. The Soviet Union agreed to help North Korea develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, including the training of nuclear scientists. Later, China, after its nuclear tests, similarly rejected North Korean requests for help with developing nuclear weapons.
Soviet engineers took part in the construction of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research CenterJames Clay Moltz and Alexandre Y. Mansourov (eds.): The North Korean Nuclear Program. Routledge, 2000. and began construction of an IRT-2000 research reactor in 1963, which became operational in 1965 and was upgraded to 8 MW in 1974. In 1979, North Korea began to build a second research reactor in Yongbyon, as well as an ore processing plant and a fuel rod fabrication plant.
In 1985 North Korea ratified the NPT but did not include the required safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until 1992. In early 1993, while verifying North Korea's initial declaration, the IAEA concluded that there was strong evidence this declaration was incomplete. When North Korea refused the requested special inspection, the IAEA reported its noncompliance to the UN Security Council. In 1993, North Korea announced its withdrawal from the NPT, but suspended that withdrawal before it took effect.
Under the 1994 Agreed Framework, the U.S. government would facilitate the supply of two 1000 MW LWRs to North Korea in exchange for freezing North Koreas nuclear program.The U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework at a Glance Fact Sheet, Arms Control Association. additional text.. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) was established for that purpose and undertook to finance and build two South Korean KEPCO E&C Korean Standard Nuclear Plantreactors at the Kumho site in North Korea. Light-water reactor technology requires uranium enrichment, and is intrinsically less likely to enable proliferation than North Korea's graphite-moderated reactors that can run on natural uranium, and generate weapons-grade plutonium. Following the U.S. Congress's rejection of U.S. funding for reactor construction, South Korea and Japan led financing of the multibillion dollar reactor construction. While both the United States and North Korea were interested in the latter's adoption of water-moderated reactors, Kim Jong-il's motivation was more technological and less political; and the Agreed Framework was not enough to ensure nonproliferation compliance. additional text. The Clinton administration was unable to fulfil its side of the agreement, as the Republican Party's late 1994 legislative wins allowed it to withhold funding the Agreement's Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization. KEPCO began development on a large site near the city of Sinpo. This was abandoned when the Agreed Framework fell apart in 2002, with each side blaming the other for its failure. By 2002, Pakistan had admitted that North Korea had gained access to Pakistan's nuclear technology in the late 1990s.Washington Post, "North 'bribed its way to nuclear statehood'", Japan Times, July 8, 2011, p. 4.
Based on evidence from Pakistan, Libya, and multiple statements made by the DPRK government, the United States accused North Korea of noncompliance and halted oil shipments; North Korea later claimed its public confession of guilt had been deliberately misconstrued. By the end of 2002, the Agreed Framework was officially abandoned.
In 2003, North Korea again announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 2005, it admitted to having nuclear weapons but committed to abandon them in the context of the Six-Party Talks.
On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted its first nuclear test. An underground nuclear explosion was detected, its yield was estimated as less than a kiloton, and some radioactive output was detected.North Korea's first nuclear test Yield estimates section On January 6, 2007, the North Korean government further confirmed that it had nuclear weapons.
On March 17, 2007, North Korea told delegates at international nuclear talks that it was preparing to shut down its main nuclear facility. The agreement was reached following a series of six-party talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan, and the United States, which began in 2003. According to the agreement, a list of its nuclear programs would be submitted and the nuclear facility would be disabled in exchange for fuel aid and normalization talks with the United States and Japan. This was delayed from April due to a dispute with the United States over Banco Delta Asia, but on July 14, IAEA inspectors confirmed the shutdown of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor and consequently North Korea began to receive aid. This agreement fell apart in 2009, following a North Korean satellite launch.
In April 2009, reports surfaced that North Korea had become a "fully fledged nuclear power", an opinion shared by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. On May 25, 2009, North Korea conducted a second nuclear test, resulting in an explosion estimated to be between 2 and 7 kilotons. The 2009 test, like the 2006 test, is believed to have occurred at Mantapsan, Kilju County, in the north-eastern part of North Korea. This was found by an earthquake occurring at the test site.
In February 2012, North Korea announced that it would suspend uranium enrichment at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center and not conduct any further tests of nuclear weapons while productive negotiations involving the United States continued. This agreement included a moratorium on long-range missile tests. Additionally, North Korea agreed to allow IAEA inspectors to monitor operations at Yongbyon. The United States reaffirmed that it had no hostile intent toward the DPRK and was prepared to improve bilateral relationships, and agreed to ship humanitarian food aid to North Korea. The United States called the move "important, if limited", but said it would proceed cautiously and that talks would resume only after North Korea made steps toward fulfilling its promise. However, after North Korea conducted a long-range missile test in April 2012, the United States decided not to proceed with food aid.
On February 11, 2013, the U.S. Geological Survey detected a magnitude 5.1 seismic disturbance, reported to be a third underground nuclear test. North Korea has officially reported it as a successful nuclear test with a lighter warhead that delivers more force than before but has not revealed the exact yield. Multiple South Korean sources estimated the yield to have been 6–9 kilotons, while the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources estimated the yield to have been 40 kilotons. However, the German estimate has since been revised to a yield equivalent of 14 kt when they published their estimations in January 2016.Nordkorea: BGR registriert vermutlichen Kernwaffentest – BGR, January 6, 2016.
On January 6, 2016, in North Korea, the U.S. Geological Survey detected a magnitude 5.1 seismic disturbance, reported to be a fourth underground nuclear test. North Korea claimed that this test involved a hydrogen bomb. This claim has not been verified. A "hydrogen bomb" could refer to several stages of fusion development, ranging from boosted fission devices to true thermonuclear weapons.