A senior U.S. official said on Feb. 24, Tuesday, that North Korea's nuclear advances bother the United States. According to U.S. research institute's predictions, Pyongyang is capable of possessing as many as 100 nuclear weapons in the span of five years.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Sung Kim, however, spoke in a Washington seminar that he could not comment on these findings since he had not been able to see the report and that the U.S. government assessments and evaluations were classified. North Korea on the other hand did not publicize how many nuclear weapons they already have.
Nonetheless, Kim said that the fact that North Koreans are indeed advancing in their nuclear capabilities concerns them deeply.
Acording to Reuters, the U.S.-Korea experts presented three possible circumstances regarding North Korea's nuclear stockpile in the future. They estimated that as of today, their weapons amount to 10-16. In an e-mail sent to Bloomberg News, the estimation is that the nuclear stockpile is expected to grow to 50 in 2020. Eventually, it could grow to 50 and further advances would allow North Korea to develop new weapons and missiles.
The co-author of the report Joel Wit said that this scenario is pretty scary given that North Korea would have the upper hand in deploying battlefield and it would be more difficult for them to try to force North Korea to cease their nuclear program.
He added, "To me it's a risky business trying to punish a country with so many nuclear weapons."
North Korea's current missile system were already able to reach most of Northeast Asia, according to the report, South Korea and Japan, in particular as these countries are North Korea's foes. The report also assessed that Pyongyang in the future may also set out a number of Taepodong missiles, which is a militarized version of a space-launch vehicle that could eventually reach the United States.
John Kerry, Secretary of the State said that United States will keep on working with allies in order to coerce Pyongyang to roll back their nuclear advances.