Contents

SIPRI Yearbook 2018

SIPRI Yearbook 2018

IX. North Korea’s military nuclear capabilities

Chapter:
6. World nuclear forces
Source:
SIPRI Yearbook 2018
Author(s):
Dan Smith

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) maintains an active but highly opaque nuclear weapon programme. It is estimated that North Korea may have produced 10–20 nuclear weapons (see table 6.10). This is based on calculations of the amount of plutonium that North Korea may have separated from the spent fuel produced by its 5 megawatt-electric (MW(e)) graphite-moderated research reactor at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center (YNSRC) and assumptions about North Korean weapon design and fabrication skills. North Korea is believed to be increasing its limited holdings of weapon-usable plutonium (see section X), although assessments differ about the scale and pace of the increase.1 In 2017 commercial satellite imagery and thermal imagery indicated that the Radiochemical Laboratory at the YNSRC might be continuing to operate intermittently to separate plutonium from the reactor’s spent fuel rods.2

Citation (MLA):
Smith, Dan. "6. World nuclear forces." SIPRI Yearbook. SIPRI. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016. Web. 16 Feb. 2025. <https://www.sipriyearbook.org/view/9780198821557/sipri-9780198821557-chapter-6-div1-038.xml>.
Citation (APA):
Smith, D. (2016). 6. World nuclear forces. In SIPRI, SIPRI Yearbook 2018: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 Feb. 2025, from https://www.sipriyearbook.org/view/9780198821557/sipri-9780198821557-chapter-6-div1-038.xml
Citation (Chicago):
Smith, Dan. "6. World nuclear forces." In SIPRI Yearbook 2018: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, SIPRI. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). Retrieved 16 Feb. 2025, from https://www.sipriyearbook.org/view/9780198821557/sipri-9780198821557-chapter-6-div1-038.xml
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