South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on August 25 (US time) that North Korea is close to completing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US, while increasing production capacity to be able to produce 10 to 20 nuclear weapons per year.
This statement was made by Mr. Lee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C, during his first visit to the US since taking office. He stressed that previous sanctions and deterrence measures have not been able to prevent Pyongyang from continuing its nuclear program.
Mr. Lee said that South Korea only relies on conventional weapons for deterrence, and has made efforts to reduce tensions by stopping activities considered Provocational, such as spreading speakers along the border. However, he admitted that the number of North Korean nuclear weapons has increased over the past 3 - 4 years.
Mr. Lee's statement was made after meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House. During the talks, Mr. Trump expressed his desire to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again this year. North Korea has not responded to the statements of the two leaders. Previously, on August 19, Mr. Kim Jong-un said that Pyongyang needs to "quickly expand" its nuclear program to deal with "hostile plans" from the North-US joint exercises.
According to the July 2024 report of the Association of American Scientists, North Korea owns enough phan waste materials to make 70-90 nuclear warheads, of which about 50 are complete. expert Lee Sang-kyu of the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis estimates that Pyongyang's current warheads range from 80 - 90. and could increase to 166 by 2030.
North Korea currently owns many types of missiles, of which the Hwasong-18 is considered the most powerful, capable of flying 15,000km, carrying one or more warheads weighing a total of 1.25-1.5 tons, capable of covering the entire US territory.
According to CSIS' August 20 report, North Korea has 15-20 ballistic missile bases, including maintenance facilities, warehouses and unopened launch sites. One of them is the Sinpung-dong base, about 27km from the Chinese border, capable of deploying 6-9 ICBMs with nuclear warheads and mobile launchers.
