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| ▲ President Lee Jae Myung speaks during his New Year's press conference in Seoul on Jan. 21, 2026. (Yonhap) |
(News Focus) NK-nuke arsenal
(News Focus) Lee's assessment on N. Korea's nuclear capabilities raises urgency of resuming diplomacy
By Park Boram
SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is continuing to produce enough nuclear material to make up to 20 new nuclear weapons each year, President Lee Jae Myung said Wednesday, highlighting the urgency of resuming negotiations with Pyongyang to halt its growing nuclear weapons program.
Providing rare information about North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities, Lee said during his New Year's press conference that the North's nuclear arsenal is ever-expanding.
"At this very moment, enough material to produce 10 to 20 nuclear weapons each year is being churned out continuously," Lee said.
Such information is generally classified military intelligence compiled through information gathering by both South Korea and U.S. intelligence assets.
Lee's rare disclosure of details on the North's nuclear capabilities appears aimed at underscoring the urgency of reopening nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang to stop the regime's growing production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium.
The North is reported to be operating highly enriched uranium production facilities in Yongbyon and Kangson, while producing plutonium at the Yongbyon facility, with the uranium facilities estimated to be capable of generating dozens of kilograms of uranium at full operation each year.
Generally, the production of a single nuclear weapon requires at least several kilograms of those materials.
An official at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses recently estimated that the North possesses 115 to 131 uranium-based weapons and 15 to 19 plutonium-based weapons as of 2025, with the combined arsenal presumed to reach up to about 150 warheads.
The official predicted that the uranium-based arsenal could swell up to 216 by 2030 and 386 by 2040, while the plutonium-based arsenal may grow to 27 by 2030 and 43 by 2040.
In a key party meeting in 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un instructed officials to expand the country's nuclear arsenal "exponentially."
Lee said denuclearizing North Korea would be "most ideal," but that the North may not be willing to give up its nuclear weapons program, calling it "the undeniable reality."
"It would also be in (our) interest to prevent the North from producing more nuclear material, transferring it overseas or further developing intercontinental ballistic missile technology," Lee said.
Based on this reality, Lee said negotiations to first "halt" the North's nuclear program could begin before pursuing "disarmament," and then ultimately denuclearization "without abandoning the ideal (goal)."
Since taking office last year, Lee has pursued a three-stage denuclearization vision for addressing North Korea's nuclear issues, involving first a freeze, followed by reduction and ultimately denuclearization.
Lee's rare use of the term "disarmament" on Wednesday also underscores his eagerness to bring the recalcitrant North Korea back to the negotiating table.
North Korea has repeatedly asserted that it will cling to its nuclear forces as the backbone of national security, saying they cannot be subject to negotiations for denuclearization.
Both Seoul and Washington have shied away from using the term "disarmament" when referring to a reduction of the North's nuclear arsenal, as it could be misleadingly interpreted as an official recognition of the country as a nuclear state.
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