Unsettling Report Claims North Korea is Now a HUGE Threat

(UnitedVoice.com) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin met one another on June 18. They revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge. Before the meeting, researchers revealed Kim is increasing his nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its 2024 yearbook. According to the report, North Korea significantly increased the number of nuclear warheads it had in its arsenal last year.

In 2023, the Stockholm-based think tank reported the country only had 30 assembled warheads. This year’s report estimated that number to be at 50 now. The authoritarian nation also has enough fissile material to build up to 90 warheads.

Most of North Korea’s warheads are “simple fission weapons with possible yields of 10-20 kilotons.” The researchers compared them to the warheads used in the nation’s nuclear tests in 2013 and 2016. The report also said the weapons were possibly outfitted with “more powerful uranium and plutonium composite pit.”

Estimates from other research organizations have varied. In 2023, the Institute for Science and International Security stated that North Korea could have between 35 to 63 nuclear weapons. In January of this year, researchers Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker put the number at 50 to 60 warheads. Meanwhile, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and Rand Corporation believe Kim might have surpassed the 100 warhead mark in 2020.

All of those numbers represent one warhead too many. The US tried to keep nuclear weapons out of the dictator’s hands but has been unsuccessful.

The news is even more concerning now that Russia has agreed to aid North Korea (and vice versa) if the country gets into a conflict with another nation.

In related news, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has announced the nine nuclear-armed countries collectively spent almost $3,000 every second to build up their arsenals. The US spent $51.5 billion, more than the other countries combined. China and Russia came in second and third place, respectively.