Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center in 2008
Siegfried Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which develops American nuclear weapons, assessed North Korea's nuclear capabilities. This is reported by the Daily Express.
According to Hecker, the DPRK has at its disposal from 25 to 48 kilograms of plutonium and from 650 to 800 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. This is enough to make about 45 nuclear weapons.
Hecker believes that North Korean nuclear-armed missiles can strike throughout South Korea and most of Japan. At the same time, the intercontinental missiles that are being developed in the DPRK require additional tests. “In other words, North Korea cannot yet strike the main territory of the United States with an intercontinental missile with a nuclear warhead, but work in this direction continues,” the specialist explained.
Hecker believes that in 2019, the United States and the DPRK had a chance to agree on nuclear disarmament. According to him, US President Donald Trump missed this chance when he left the Hanoi talks with the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un ahead of schedule.
From 1986 to 1997, Siegfried Hecker headed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of two institutions in the United States where secret work on nuclear weapons is carried out. Since 2004, he has visited the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center annually, the largest nuclear facility in the DPRK.
North Korea is continuing to develop nuclear weapons, according to a confidential UN report, and some countries believe Pyongyang may already have built miniature nuclear devices. The document stated that the country was producing highly enriched uranium and building an experimental light water reactor.
