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![handle is hein.crs/govekiz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service
Informing the Iegitive debate since 1914
Updated January 23, 2023
North Korea's Nuclear Weapons and Missile Programs
Overview
North Korea continues to advance its nuclear weapons and
missile programs despite UN Security Council sanctions
and high-level diplomatic efforts. Recent ballistic missile
tests and military parades suggest that North Korea is
continuing to build a nuclear warfighting capability
designed to evade regional ballistic missile defenses. Such
an approach likely reinforces a deterrence and coercive
diplomacy strategy-lending more credibility as it
demonstrates capability-but it also raises questions about
crisis stability and escalation control. Congress may choose
to examine U.S. policy in light of these advances.
According to the U.S. intelligence community's 2022
annual threat assessment, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
views nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic
missiles (ICBMs) as the ultimate guarantor of his
totalitarian and autocratic rule of North Korea and believes
that over time he will gain international acceptance as a
nuclear power.
United States policy as well as United Nations resolutions
call on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. In a
September 9, 2022, speech to North Korea's Supreme
People's Assembly, Kim Jong Un rejected denuclearization
talks and vowed the country would continue developing its
nuclear power. The Assembly adopted a new law that
reportedly expands the conditions under which North Korea
would use nuclear weapons to include possible first use in
situations that threaten the regime's survival. The Biden
Administration's 2022 Nuclear Posture Review said, Any
nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or
its Allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the
end of that regime.
Nuclear Testing
North Korea has tested a nuclear explosive device six times
since 2006. Each test produced underground blasts
progressively higher in magnitude and estimated yield.
North Korea conducted its most recent test on September 3,
2017. A North Korean press release stated it had tested a
hydrogen bomb (or two-stage thermonuclear warhead) that
it was perfecting for delivery on an intercontinental ballistic
missile.
In April 2018, North Korea announced that it had achieved
its goals, would no longer conduct nuclear tests, and would
close down its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. It dynamited the
entrances to two test tunnels in May 2018 prior to the first
Trump-Kim summit. In an October 2018 meeting with
then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Kim Jong-un
invited inspectors to visit the [test site] to confirm that it
has been irreversibly dismantled, but this did not occur.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports say
North Korea began restoring test tunnels in March 2022.
Nuclear Material Production
North Korea reportedly continues to produce fissile
material (plutonium and highly enriched uranium) for
weapons. North Korea restarted its plutonium production
facilities after it withdrew from a nuclear agreement in
2009, and is operating centrifuge uranium enrichment
plants at the Yongbyon nuclear complex and possibly at
Kangson. A March 2022 IAEA report says that there were
no indications of operations at its Radiochemical
Laboratory (reprocessing) plant since its last reprocessing
campaign from February to July 2021. The IAEA notes
ongoing operation of the Yongbyon Experimental Light
Water 5MW(e) Reactor since July 2021. Spent fuel from
that reactor is reprocessed at the Radiochemical Laboratory
to extract plutonium for weapons. In September 2022, the
IAEA reported ongoing uranium mining, milling, and
concentration activities at Pyongsan. Fissile material
production in large part determines the number and type of
nuclear warheads a country is able to build.
Nuclear Warheads
Outside experts estimate that North Korea has produced
enough fissile material for between 20 to 60 warheads. A
2021 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report says
that North Korea retains a stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Another goal of a nuclear weapons program is to lower the
size and weight of a nuclear warhead for deployment on
missiles. A July 2017 DIA assessment and some outside
observers asserted North Korea had achieved the level of
miniaturization required to fit a nuclear device on weapons
ranging from short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) to
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Kim Jong-un in
January 2021 said that the country was able to miniaturize,
lighten and standardize nuclear weapons and to make them
tactical ones.
Missile Development
North Korea conducted an unprecedented 63 ballistic
missile test launches in 2022 according to U.S. government
officials. U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions
prohibit North Korea's development of the means of
delivering conventional and nuclear payloads, in addition to
the nuclear weapons themselves. UNSC resolutions
specifically ban all ballistic missile tests by North Korea.
A ballistic missile is a projectile powered by a rocket
engine until it reaches the apogee of its trajectory, at which
point it falls back to earth using earth's gravity. Ballistic
missiles can deliver nuclear and large conventional
payloads at high speed and over great distances. They are
categorized as short-range, medium-range, or long-range
(intercontinental) based on the distance from the launch site
to the target.
North Korea is developing nuclear weapons and delivery
systems that possess certain critical features: mobility,
reliability, potency, precision, and survivability. Mobile](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govekiz0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)