North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: Latest Developments

Abstract

On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced it conducted a nuclear test. It is not yet clear whether North Korea achieved a nuclear yield and if so, how big. North Korea ended an eight-year freeze on its plutonium production program in 2002, expelling international inspectors and restarting facilities. Whereas many believed North Korea might have had enough plutonium (Pu) for one or two weapons in then, North Korea may now have enough Pu for six or eight more weapons. In 2005, North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons, but rejoined the Six-Party Talks in July and agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program in September 2005. The failure of the talks has allowed North Korea to continue to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. The United States and other countries have condemned the North Korean nuclear test and called for sanctions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 10, 2006
Accession Number
ADA477850

Entities

People

  • Sharon Squassoni

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Explosives
  • Fissile Materials
  • High Explosives
  • International Security
  • Material Degradation Processes
  • Materials
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • National Security
  • New York
  • North Korea
  • Nuclear Materials
  • Nuclear Reactors
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Production
  • United States
  • Weapons

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • International Relations, focusing on Korea-Africa and North Korea-South Korea relations, and Nigeria-Latin American Relations.
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security