North Korea

Experts estimate that North Korea may have enough plutonium and highly enriched uranium for 20 to 25 nuclear weapons, a tiny amount compared to nations like China, the United States or Russia. But the crisis with North Korea presents one of the greatest global security threats today. And the crisis is only getting worse as Pyongyang races to develop its ability to strike targets farther and farther away.

Verbal threats and other provocations between the North and the US have stoked this growing fire, bringing us to the brink of war in mid 2017. North Korea has developed an ICBM capable of reaching the United States and reportedly has a miniaturized nuclear warhead to match. If diplomatic action isn’t taken soon, it may be only a matter of time before a devastating regional war breaks out in the region. Threatening military action in the region  will almost certainly fail, but more ominously will likely result in one or more of three outcomes, all of them bad: accidental war or military miscalculation, weapons-grade plutonium or uranium secreted out of North Korea, and Pyongyang increasing its leverage by continuing to produce fissile material. Ploughshares Fund and its grantees are committed to preventing a humanitarian catastrophe and finding a peaceful resolution to the North Korea crisis.

Latest News and Analysis on Nuclear Weapons in North Korea

  • CNN: Pending North Korea missile launch

    April 2, 2009 - By Ploughshares Fund

  • New satellite imagery of missile site in North Korea

    UPDATE: Today, the Ploughshares-funded Institute for Science and International Security  reports that satellite imagery shows a North Korean rocket slated for launch next month can be clearly

    March 30, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • North Korea launch threatens disarmament talks

    North Korea's plan to launch a rocket as early as this week, in defiance of warnings, threatens to undo years of negotiations toward dismantling the regime's nuclear program.

    March 29, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • Examining North Korea's launch vehicle

    David Wright of the Ploughshares-funded Union of Concerned Scientists provides expert insight into the launch vehicle for North Korea’s upcoming missile launch, though &

    March 24, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • Showing Up in North Korea

    Woody Allen famously said that “90 percent of life is just showing up.”  Interestingly, Allen’s advice can be applied to international diplomacy and security as much as anything else.  Ploughshares Fund has been supporting people who have been “showing up” in unusual – yet critical – places.  In fact, I just returned from a trip to North Korea myself. 

    March 19, 2009 - By Paul Carroll

  • North Korea sets date to launch satellite

    North Korea gave notice it will launch a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and April 8. However, some intelligence agencies see the widely anticipated launch as a cover for a test of its longest-range missile, banned by the UN.

    March 12, 2009 - By Anonymous

  • 5 Myths About All Those Nukes Out There

    by Michael Krepon

    Last week's news that North Korea plans to test a ballistic missile that could reach Alaska gave doomsayers more grounds for gloom. But amid the fear about nuclear attacks by terrorists or leaders such as Kim Jong Il, let's not forget that the United States has managed to protect itself from such a catastrophe not only since 9/11, but since the birth of the bomb in 1945.

    March 1, 2009 - By Anonymous

  • North Korea puts launch in innocuous terms

    North Korea announced its intention to launch a ‘communications satellite’, downplaying its suspected plans to test a long-range ballistic missile test despite a U.N. resolution forbidding such activity.  Experts fear an attempt by the U.S.

    February 23, 2009 - By Anonymous

  • U.S. experts head to North Korea

    A group of U.S.

    February 23, 2009 - By Anonymous

  • Getting to zero

    John Isaacs of the Ploughshares-funded Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation discusses possibilities for negotiating with Iran and North Korea regarding their nuclear ambitions.  Isaacs s

    February 19, 2009 - By Anonymous