North Korea expands nuclear arsenal, Chinese experts say
BEIJING — Nuclear experts in
China have revealed that North Korea may already have 20 nuclear
warheads and could double that arsenal by next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The total exceeds current U.S. assessments of the secretive state’s nuclear weapons.
The Chinese experts believe North Korea has a greater domestic capacity to enrich uranium than previously thought, Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University nuclear expert and former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, told the Journal.
The Chinese estimates were shared in a closed-door meeting with U.S. nuclear specialists in Beijing this February, said the report. The growing stockpile will complicate international efforts to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program, said Hecker, who attended the February meeting.
“I’m concerned that by 20, they actually have a nuclear arsenal,” he said. “The more they believe they have a fully functional nuclear arsenal and deterrent, the more difficult it’s going to be to walk them back from that.”
U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the revelations cast a shadow on the pending nuclear deal the United States and other world powers are negotiating with Iran to curtail that country’s nuclear program. The agreement under discussion would ensure that country’s nuclear program remains peaceful. The 1994 agreement between the Clinton administration and North Korea was supposed to stop a North Korean nuclear weapons program.
“We saw how North Korea was able to game this whole process,” Royce told the Journal. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran had its hands on the same playbook.”
North Korea has barred inspectors from many of its nuclear sites. Royce said U.S. experts do not know if North Korea has more than one factory developing uranium fuel. In a hearing Wednesday, Royce said verification and inspections of Iranian military sites that the Islamic Republic officials have placed off limits would be a key measure of a successful deal.
The Chinese experts believe North Korea has a greater domestic capacity to enrich uranium than previously thought, Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University nuclear expert and former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, told the Journal.
The Chinese estimates were shared in a closed-door meeting with U.S. nuclear specialists in Beijing this February, said the report. The growing stockpile will complicate international efforts to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program, said Hecker, who attended the February meeting.
“I’m concerned that by 20, they actually have a nuclear arsenal,” he said. “The more they believe they have a fully functional nuclear arsenal and deterrent, the more difficult it’s going to be to walk them back from that.”
U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the revelations cast a shadow on the pending nuclear deal the United States and other world powers are negotiating with Iran to curtail that country’s nuclear program. The agreement under discussion would ensure that country’s nuclear program remains peaceful. The 1994 agreement between the Clinton administration and North Korea was supposed to stop a North Korean nuclear weapons program.
“We saw how North Korea was able to game this whole process,” Royce told the Journal. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran had its hands on the same playbook.”
North Korea has barred inspectors from many of its nuclear sites. Royce said U.S. experts do not know if North Korea has more than one factory developing uranium fuel. In a hearing Wednesday, Royce said verification and inspections of Iranian military sites that the Islamic Republic officials have placed off limits would be a key measure of a successful deal.
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