Kim Jong Un wants North Korea to ‘expand exponentially’ | Abroad

Kim’s words follow the launch of three ballistic missiles Saturday morning. The missiles were fired towards the east of the Korean peninsula and ended up in the sea. It was the umpteenth time that North Korea provoked with missiles. At least 70 ballistic missiles were launched last year, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that could theoretically reach the US.

According to Kim Jong Un, South Korea has become an ‘undisputed enemy’, while the US also has to pay for the alleged military threat against the regime in Pyongyang. To counter both countries, “exponential expansion” of its own nuclear arsenal is necessary, according to Kim. The country must continue to develop a more powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.

It’s not the first time Kim has used big words. The dictator’s rhetoric has been ominous for a year now. At the end of November, the dictator already announced that the main goal is to defeat North Korea the largest nuclear power in the world.

Experts now assume that North Korea has indeed succeeded in developing nuclear weapons. However, there are currently not many of them. In the authoritative Nuclear Notebook from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists states that by 2022 North Korea had enough material for 45 to 55 nuclear weapons. Whether they were actually manufactured is the question. More likely, North Korea has 20 or 30 at most.

It is clear, however, that the threat from the country is increasing. “North Korea has made significant progress in developing a nuclear arsenal over the past two decades,” write researchers Hans M. Kristensen and Matt Korda in their Nuclear Notebook, which has been attempting to estimate the world’s nuclear weapons stockpile since 1987. “It detonated six nuclear devices, one of them with a force of more than 100 kilotons. It has also test-flighted a variety of new ballistic missiles.”

Several of these missiles are believed to be capable of firing a warhead at targets in Northeast Asia and possibly the United States and Europe, according to both experts. “However, there is great uncertainty about which of the North Korean missiles were launched with an active operational nuclear capability.”

Kim Jong Un still has some way to go to become the greatest nuclear power on the planet. There are now approximately 13,000 warheads stationed in the world, Russia owns more than half of them (6,850). A close second is the US with nearly 6,500 nuclear weapons. North Korea’s ambitions are complicated by a UN arms embargo and economic sanctions. Most of the sanctions have been in effect since 2006, when the regime conducted its first nuclear test.