Skip to main content

Enough nuclear material

Written on .

North Korea is producing enough nuclear material a year for up to 20 weapons, the South's President Lee Jae Myung has said, warning that Pyongyang's ambitions could pose a global danger. The North carried out its first atomic test in 2006 in violation of UN resolutions and is now believed to possess dozens of nuclear warheads.

"Even now, nuclear materials sufficient to produce 10 to 20 nuclear weapons a year are still being produced" in North Korea, Lee told reporters at a New Year news conference.

"At some point, North Korea will have secured the nuclear arsenal it believes it needs to sustain the regime, along with ICBM capabilities capable of threatening not only the United States but the wider world," he said, referring to intercontinental ballistic missiles.