Analysis of satellite imagery, defector accounts, and South Korean intelligence assessments indicates that North Korea has significantly expanded its nuclear weapons production infrastructure over the past 18 months. Estimates of the country's stockpile now range from 60 to 100 deliverable warheads, up from 40 to 50 two years ago. The growth suggests Pyongyang has solved several technical bottlenecks in weapons-grade material production.
International sanctions have demonstrably failed to arrest North Korea's nuclear development, a conclusion that is reshaping strategic thinking in Washington and Seoul. US officials are quietly debating whether to accept North Korea as a de facto nuclear state and negotiate arms control arrangements that limit further expansion, or to maintain the denuclearization demand that has defined policy for three decades but produced no results.
