Democratic People's Republic of Korea
North Korea has the world's smallest nuclear arsenal. In 2023, it again demonstrated that it lacks the will purposefully to pursue nuclear disarmament. It remained unwilling to adhere to or engage constructively with the TPNW.
TPNW Status
| Nuclear warhead inventory at the beginning of 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total inventory of warheads | 50 | |
| Retired warheads | 0 | |
| Warheads available for use | 50 | |
| Estimated yield (MT) | 4.6 | |
| Hiroshima-bomb equivalents | 307 | |
| TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: Compatibility in 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Non-compatible |
| Test | Compatible | |
| Possess or stockpile | Non-compatible | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compatible |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compatible |
| (d) | Use | Compatible |
| Threaten to use | Non-compatible | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compatible |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compatible |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compatible |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted no (2023) |
| Participated in 2MSP (2023) | No |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | N/A |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | N/A |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | No |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Did not vote |
| Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) treaties | |
|---|---|
| Party to an NWFZ | No |
| Party to the NPT | No (Ratification withdrawn 2003) |
| Ratified the CTBT | No (Annex 2 state) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Acceded 1987) |
| Party to the CWC | No |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes (Not implemented) |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
| Small Quantities Protocol | No |
| Additional Protocol | No |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | Yes (Mil, Uncertain) |
| HEU stocks | 700 kg available for weapons |
| Plutonium stocks | 40 kg (Mil) |
Latest developments
In September 2023, the Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea voted to enshrine the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons into its constitution. ‘This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening the national defence capabilities,’ Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader, said in an address to the legislature. ‘The [North Korean] nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything.’1
During the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly in September 2023, North Korea accused the United States of ‘moving on to the practical stage of realising its sinister intention to provoke a nuclear war by frequently dispatching strategic nuclear submarines and strategic nuclear bombers carrying nuclear weapons in and around the Korean Peninsula for the first time in decades’. It described the military security situation in the region as ‘extremely dangerous’.2
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2023, North Korea said: ‘From the beginning of this year, the US-led joint military drills with different code names aimed at [North Korea] have been conducted one after another throughout the sky, land and sea in and around the Korean Peninsula as was in the previous year. They were of a preemptive strike and aggressive in nature to all intents and purposes and the largest ever in scale in history.’3
Recommendations
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North Korea should acknowledge that nuclear deterrence is not a sustainable solution for its own or international security, and that any perceived benefits are far outweighed by the risk of nuclear accidents or war.
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North Korea should pursue negotiations in good faith on nuclear disarmament.
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North Korea should urgently adhere to the TPNW. Until it is in a position to do so, it should welcome the TPNW as a valuable component in the global disarmament and non-proliferation architecture, work with the Treaty's states parties on practical steps towards disarmament, and attend the meetings of states parties as an observer.
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North Korea should also return to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and adhere to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).