This post is from May 2009. Facts and links may have changed since. See more from that month

Article1 min read

North Korea's Next Steps

I was struggling with what to say about the increasingly dire situation in North Korea, when I discovered that Sig Hecker did it for me in the Bulletin:

In summary, North Korea is capable of carrying out its threat to restart the Yongbyon plutonium production facilities; however, it is limited to adding roughly one bomb per year to its small arsenal of nuclear weapons. The greatest threat of a restart is that it may embolden Pyongyang to test another weapon in order to improve its arsenal’s sophistication or that it would give it an additional incentive to link up with Iran in a troublesome alliance of nuclear and missile technology cooperation—an action that could further endanger Northeast Asia and the Middle East.

It is one of a very nice series that the Bulletin has compiled.

Jeffrey Lewis

Writing on ACW 2004–2026

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the founding publisher of Arms Control Wonk.com. He is the Director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His also a non-resident affiliate at Stanford's Center for Security and International Cooperation and a Contributing Editor to Survival.

All posts by Jeffrey Lewis