Report to Congress on North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons and Missile Programs

U.S. Naval Institute ^ | July 25, 2023 | Congressional Research Service

[Retain Mike]

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.

U.S. policy as well as U.N. resolutions call on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and missile programs. Kim Jong Un has repeatedly rejected “denuclearization” talks. According to the U.S. intelligence community’s 2023 annual threat assessment (ATA), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un views nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as “the ultimate guarantor of his autocratic rule and has no intention of abandoning those programs, believing that over time he will gain international acceptance as a nuclear power.”

The Korea People’s Assembly adopted a new law in September 2022 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.

[Syncopated]

Technology straight from 2002.

[DownInFlames]

If nuclear war starts, it will be from the Norks.