North Korea claims its nuclear forces are capable of destroying its rivals, and often follows its provocative weapons tests with launch details. But many foreign experts call the North's claim propaganda and suggest that the country is not yet capable of hitting the United States or its allies with a nuclear weapon.
There's no question that North Korea has nuclear bombs, and that it has missiles that place the U.S. mainland, South Korea and Japan within striking distance. What's not yet clear is whether the country has mastered the tricky engineering required to join the bombs and the missiles.North Korea has demonstrated that it has missiles that could fly far enough to reach deep into the continental U.S.
There are questions on whether North Korea has acquired the technology to shield warheads from the high-temperature, high-stress environment of atmospheric re-entry. "The Kim regime's claims of short-notice launches are thus intended to demonstrate not only the development of strategic and tactical nuclear forces but also the operational capability to use them," Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said.
In a 2021 interview with 38 North, a North Korea-focused website, renowned nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker, who has visited North Korea's main Yongbyon nuclear complex numerous times, said that "20 to 60 is possible, with the most likely number being 45." The biennial South Korean defence document said that North Korea is estimated to have 70 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium. Some observers say that's enough for about 9-18 bombs. The document estimated that North Korea has "a considerable amount of" highly enriched uranium as well.
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