North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that the production of weapons-grade nuclear material has more than doubled in the past five years, vowing an "exponential" increase in military nuclear capabilities.
During a visit to a new nuclear material production facility, Kim said North Korea has confirmed an "ambitious future plan designed to beef up our state's nuclear forces at an exponential rate," the state-run Korean Central News Agency KCNA reported Thursday.
North Korea sees its nuclear arsenal as protection against attack from South Korea and US forces stationed there.
Of the planned increase, Kim said: "This signifies an amazing, successful change that is beyond rhetorical description, a historic event that has set up an epochal milestone in rapidly upgrading our nuclear capabilities."
Rejecting pressure from the United States, North Korea insists it will not give up its nuclear arsenal, describing its path as "irreversible."
North Korea's ambassador to the UN, Kim Song, has said the country's nuclear-armed state won't change based on external rhetorical claims.
Song said Pyongyang was not bound by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons and external pressure would not change its status, which has been enshrined in the constitution.
Pyongyang's Atomic Odyssey
Pyongyang first withdrew from the NPT in 1993 and has since conducted six nuclear tests, subjecting it to multiple United Nations resolutions, and is believed to possess dozens of nuclear warheads.
In 2002, an agreement between North Korea and the US — in which Pyongyang was committed to freeze its plutonium in exchange for aid — collapsed.
In the same year, North Korea admitted to having had a secret nuclear weapons development programme going back several years.
Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test on October 8, 2006, two days after the UN Security Council warned the country that the action could lead to severe consequences.
The nine nuclear-armed states — Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea — possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported.
Israel remains the only country that possesses nuclear weapons without confirming to possess them, whilst the US and Russia hold nearly 90 per cent of nuclear weapons globally.
