South Korea has said North Korea has between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads, far mroe than the number estimated by Donald Trump.
The country’s defence minister announced the number on Thursday, citing a range significantly higher than President Trump’s recent assertion that Pyongyang has 57 nuclear weapons.
Trump made the remark at the White House on Wednesday while discussing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his plans to meet him later this year.
Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers that North Korea was generally believed to have around 80 to 120 warheads, although he cautioned it was difficult to determine an exact figure.
“We usually see it as around 80 to 120, but it is considerably limited to state an exact number,” Ahn told a parliamentary committee.
Later, Ahn clarified that the figure was derived from estimates by private research organisations, adding that South Korea’s military could not officially confirm the numbers.
Asked about Trump’s comment a day earlier that Kim possessed 57 “very powerful nuclear weapons”, Ahn said, “the numbers appear somewhat different.”
South Korea has traditionally avoided publicly disclosing detailed estimates of North Korea’s nuclear stockpile and does not officially recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state under its long-standing policy supporting denuclearisation.
open image in galleryAhn reiterated that position when asked whether the government acknowledged North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
“We cannot officially acknowledge that,” he said.
He also declined to comment on whether Trump’s reference to 57 warheads amounted to U.S. recognition of North Korea’s nuclear status, saying it would not be appropriate for South Korea’s defence minister to comment on the U.S. president’s remarks.
Ahn said South Korea would continue to rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, in line with Seoul’s longstanding non-nuclear policy.
“We cannot develop nuclear weapons. Nor should we accept the deployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons,” Ahn said.
The comments came as Trump seeks to revive engagement with Kim after ordering a scale-back of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills, which he described as “hostile” to North Korea.
Trump said at the White House on Wednesday that he expected to meet Kim later this year, potentially reviving diplomacy that stalled after a series of unprecedented summits in 2018 and 2019 collapsed over disagreements on sanctions relief and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
open image in galleryNorth Korea said Wednesday that a U.S. decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea does not change what it sees as the provocative nature of the drills, dampening hopes for an early resumption of diplomacy between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made the comments Wednesday night in her country’s first reaction to Trump’s moves to drastically cut back the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills.
“We think it’s not worth making comments on that and we have no interest in it at all,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.
“The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”She also cited a series of other military drills carried out by the U.S. and South Korea earlier this year and South Korea’s push to introduce nuclear-powered submarines.Kim Yo Jong denied that there are any communications between Trump and Kim.
Earlier this week, pressed by reporters on whether he had a conversation with Kim Jong Un, Trump said that Kim had responded to his request for a conversation.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement did not contain North Korea’s typically harsh rhetoric. She briefly said relations between her brother and Trump are “still excellent,” mentioning her brother’s past comments that he still has “good memories” of Trump. This suggests North Korea may be trying to manage relations with Trump, while seeking bigger concessions to restart talks.
When asked by reporters Wednesday if he will meet with Kim Jong Un this year, Trump said that “Yeah, I will be.” He wouldn’t answer a question about whether he is exchanging letters with Kim but said he gets along with him.