North Korea Overview

This page is part of the North Korea Country Profile.

North Korea (formally, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK), has active and increasingly sophisticated nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and is believed to possess chemical and biological weapons capabilities.

North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in January 2003, is not a party to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and has conducted six increasingly sophisticated nuclear tests since 2006. The DPRK is not a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and is believed to possess a large chemical weapons program. Despite being a state party to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) and Geneva Protocol, evidence suggests North Korea may maintain an offensive biological weapons program.

In defiance of the international community, which has imposed heavy sanctions on North Korea for its illicit behavior, the country has continued to escalate its WMD activities. In July 2017, North Korea successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and in September 2017 it conducted a test of what it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon. ¹

After years of heightened regional tensions and frequent North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests, early 2018 saw a thaw in diplomatic relations. In April, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced a halt to all nuclear and ICBM tests, and participated in a summit meeting with the leader of South Korea. ² On 12 June 2018, Kim met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore, the first face-to-face meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States in history. At the summit, the DPRK pledged “to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” ³

A post-summit stall in diplomatic talks was punctuated by North Korea’s resumption of short-range ballistic missile tests in May 2019, the first such tests in over 18 months. ⁴ In June 2020, North Korea marked the second anniversary of the Singapore summit by declaring its intention to bolster nuclear deterrence in the face of perceived U.S. threats. ⁵

*Graphic shows DPRK capabilities as of February 2018

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North Korea’s nuclear ambitions date to the Korean War in the 1950s but came to the attention of the international community in 1992, when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovered that its nuclear activities were more extensive than declared. ⁶ The revelations led North Korea to withdraw from the IAEA in 1994. In an effort to prevent North Korean withdrawal from the NPT, the United States and North Korea negotiated the Agreed Framework, in which Pyongyang agreed to freeze its nuclear activities and give access to IAEA inspectors in exchange for U.S.-supplied light water reactors and energy assistance. ⁷ The Agreed Framework broke down in 2002. ⁸ North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the NPT in January 2003, prompting China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States to engage North Korea in the Six-Party Talks in a further attempt at a diplomatic solution to the country’s nuclear program. The talks fell apart in 2009, and no serious diplomatic initiatives to denuclearize North Korea occurred until 2018. ⁹ At the June 2018 U.S.-North Korean summit, Kim Jong-un “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” although North Korea’s definition of “denuclearization” is ambiguous. ¹⁰ No agreement on a method or timetable for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons has been reached. ¹¹ North Korean commitments to denuclearization were further called into question in July 2020 with the identification of a previously undeclared facility in Wollo-ri thought to be a nuclear warhead or component manufacturing site. ¹² Vehicle traffic observed at the site through satellite imagery suggests that warhead or warhead component manufacturing continued during the 2018 summit and is ongoing.

North Korea produces both weapons-useable plutonium and enriched uranium, with one U.S. government estimate in 2017 suggesting the country may be producing enough nuclear material each year for 12 additional nuclear weapons. ¹³

North Korea accede to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in 1987 and became party to the Geneva Protocol in 1988. U.S. intelligence sources consider North Korea capable of biological weapons production and weaponization. ¹⁴ However, open source information on the status of the DPRK’s biological weapons program tells a conflicting story. The 2018 Defense White Paper by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense estimates that the DPRK possesses the causative agents of anthrax, smallpox, and plague, among others. ¹⁵ The U.S. Secretary of Defense’s 2017 report assesses that North Korea may consider the use of biological weapons as an option, contrary to its obligations under the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC), but does not reference specific agent stockpiles. ¹⁶

North Korea possesses a large and increasingly sophisticated ballistic missile program, and conducts frequent missile test launches, heightening East Asian tensions. In 2017, North Korea successfully tested the Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15, its first ICBMs, which some experts believe gives North Korea the capability to deliver a nuclear payload anywhere in the United States. ¹⁷

North Korea’s initiated its ballistic missile program in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when it acquired Soviet Scud-type missiles from Egypt and reverse-engineered them. ¹⁸ In the early 1990’s, with assistance from Iran and several other countries, North Korea began producing Nodong medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM). ¹⁹ North Korea has developed and tested a number of new missiles since Kim Jong-un’s ascension to leadership in 2011, such as the Intermediate-Range Hwasong-12 and the extended range (ER) Scud. ²⁰ 2019 and 2020 have seen numerous test launches of various models of solid-fueled short-range ballistic missiles. ²¹ In October 2020, North Korea displayed what appeared to be a solid-fuel ICBM at a military parade. ²²

In addition to its land-based ballistic missiles, North Korea has successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Pukguksong-1. ²³ North Korea also has a Space Launch Vehicle, the Unha, which uses technologies closely related to its ballistic missiles. ²⁴ North Korea is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

North Korea is not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). ²⁵ The DPRK’s pursuit of chemical weapons dates to 1954, and it most likely obtained indigenous offensive CW production capabilities in the early 1980s. ²⁶ The South Korean 2018 Defense White Paper estimates that North Korea has stockpiled between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of CW agent. ²⁷

Pyongyang has concentrated on acquiring mustard, phosgene, sarin, and V-type chemical agents. Reports indicate that the DPRK has approximately 12 facilities where raw chemicals, precursors, and agents are produced and/or stored, as well as six major storage depots for chemical weapons. ²⁸ Allegations of chemical and biological weapons testing on prisoners and persons with disabilities have been made by North Korean defectors, but the accuracy of these testimonies is unconfirmed. ²⁹ In February 2017, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-nam, was assassinated in the Kuala Lumpur international airport. Following the attack, Malaysian officials announced that Kim Jong-nam was killed by suspected North Korean agents wielding the nerve agent VX. ³⁰

Visit the CNS/NTI North Korea Missile Test Database for a comprehensive visualization of all of North Korea’s missile tests since 1984. View North Korean Ballistic Missile Models and interact with 3D models of North Korea’s missiles.