On Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced plans to “rapidly” build up nuclear forces, reminding the world of Pyongyang’s nuclear threat, as state media showed footage of Kim visiting what South Korea said was possibly a new uranium enrichment plan.
The unveiling of the plant came a week after the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that North Korea would never be “denuclearized.”
This was in response to the foreign ministers of the US, Japan, India and Australia, which comprise the so-called Quad grouping, which called for the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea after a meeting in New Delhi.
North Korea has become more defiant in building its nuclear program, with Kim declaring in February 2026 that North Korea’s status as a nuclear state is “completely and absolutely irreversible”.
Kim also stressed that any talks or diplomatic engagement with the US was dependent on Washington recognizing North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
North Korea is in search of nuclear weapons
North Korea’s nuclear program has attracted little attention so far during the second term of US President Donald Trump, who met Kim three times during his first term.
However, Trump’s high-profile US-North Korea summits in 2018 and 2019, which focused on getting Kim to give up its nuclear weapons, went nowhere. Since then, North Korea has been laying the institutional and material foundation for a more robust nuclear weapons program.
In 2023, North Korea amended its constitution to establish its “nuclear force-building policy”. At the same time, Pyongyang has deteriorated relations with South Korea, calling it a “hostile state” and abandoning any pretense of “reunification.”
In early May 2026, South Korean intelligence revealed that Pyongyang had codified into law an “automatic nuclear launch” policy in case the central command-and-control mechanisms or Kim himself are targeted by “hostile forces”.
In April 2026, US Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert Kadlec told the Senate Armed Services Committee that North Korea’s nuclear forces were “increasingly capable of targeting the US,” and its missile forces “could strike South Korea and Japan with nuclear or conventional weapons.”
“These forces are growing in size and sophistication, and they present a clear and present danger of nuclear attack,” Kadlec said.
“It has been years since the United States has had an effective strategy and serious engagement policy toward North Korea,” Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, told DW.
Nevertheless, he said the US and its allies “should not abandon denuclearization as the ultimate goal.” He said that halting and subsequently rolling back North Korea’s nuclear weapons program would depend on first “stabilizing U.S.-North Korean relations and reducing the risks of conflict.”
What are North Korea’s nuclear strike capabilities?
According to the US intelligence community, 2026 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) Released in March, North Korea “committed to expanding its strategic weapons programs, including missiles and nuclear weapons, to strengthen its deterrent capability.”
Another 2025 threat assessment says Kim is prioritizing developing tactical nuclear weapons, “small and lightweight” nuclear weapons, as well as “ultra-large nuclear weapons.”
It is difficult to assess how many nuclear weapons North Korea currently possesses, as no independent inspection is currently possible. In 2024, the Federation of American Scientists estimated that North Korea had enough fissile material to make 90 weapons, but had probably assembled about 50 weapons.
That same year U.S. intelligence assessed that North Korea had “unveiled an alleged tactical nuclear weapon and claimed it could be mounted on at least eight delivery systems, including unmanned underwater vehicles and cruise missiles.”
North Korea has also tested several intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) since 2017, which US intelligence estimates are intended to enable strikes against targets in the continental United States.
In 2025, the North said it had tested a hypersonic missile which is fast enough to evade air defenses.
Other advances include the development of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) payloads that would allow a single ballistic missile to carry multiple warheads.
US intelligence also assesses that North Korea has benefited from Russian information and technology in exchange for supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Over the past eight years, North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has expanded both quantitatively and qualitatively,” Davenport said. He said the arsenal was being expanded to include sea-based assets.
Will North Korea test another nuclear weapon?
North Korea has conducted six underground nuclear tests since 2006, with Pyongyang claiming the last test in 2017 was a hydrogen bomb that could be carried on an ICBM.
A year later, North said it would not conduct further trials. But according to a 2025 US intelligence report, North Korea “has restored its nuclear test site and is now ready to conduct a seventh nuclear test at a time of its choosing.”
However, arms control expert Davenport said it was unlikely that North Korea would conduct another test “without a clear technical rationale.”
“Kim Jong Un may wait to test until it becomes necessary to verify the new weapon design,” he said.
“North Korea pays a price for nuclear tests,” Davenport said, adding that a new nuclear test would make it difficult for allies Russia and China to shield Pyongyang from international condemnation and U.N. Security Council action.
The North Korean regime continues to insist that nuclear weapons are a deterrent essential to its existence. And as Pyongyang sees the regime in Iran under attack, it will see no reason to alter its strategy.
However, despite the rapid pace of North Korea’s nuclear development, the 2026 US threat assessment concludes that the regime is unlikely to use these weapons in any offensive capacity because “North Korea is likely to remain deterred by US and allied forces.”
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru