SEOUL: South Korea estimates North Korea possesses between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads, its defence minister mentioned on Thursday (Aug 20), citing a variety considerably increased than US President Donald Trump’s current assertion that Pyongyang has 57 nuclear weapons.
Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back advised lawmakers that North Korea was usually believed to have round 80 to 120 warheads, though he cautioned it was troublesome to find out a precise determine.
“We often see it as round 80 to 120, however it’s significantly restricted to state a precise quantity,” Ahn advised a parliamentary committee.
Later, Ahn clarified that the determine was derived from estimates by personal analysis organisations, including that South Korea’s navy couldn’t formally verify the numbers.
Requested about Trump’s remark a day earlier that Kim possessed 57 “very highly effective nuclear weapons”, Ahn mentioned, “the numbers seem considerably totally different”.
Trump made the comment on the White Home on Wednesday whereas discussing North Korean chief Kim Jong Un and his plans to satisfy him later this 12 months.
South Korea has historically prevented publicly disclosing detailed estimates of North Korea’s nuclear stockpile and doesn’t formally recognise Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state underneath its long-standing coverage supporting denuclearisation.
Ahn reiterated that place when requested whether or not the federal government acknowledged North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
“We can not formally acknowledge that,” he mentioned.
He additionally declined to touch upon whether or not Trump’s reference to 57 warheads amounted to US recognition of North Korea’s nuclear standing, saying it might not be applicable for South Korea’s defence minister to touch upon the US president’s remarks.
Ahn mentioned South Korea would proceed to depend on the US nuclear umbrella, in keeping with Seoul’s longstanding non-nuclear coverage.
“We can not develop nuclear weapons. Nor ought to we settle for the deployment of US tactical nuclear weapons,” Ahn mentioned.
The feedback got here as Trump seeks to revive engagement with Kim after ordering a scale-back of joint US-South Korean military drills, which he described as “hostile” to North Korea.
North Korea responded coolly to the transfer. Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean chief, mentioned the lowered workouts remained provocative and aggressive regardless of their shortened period.
She dismissed any suggestion that Pyongyang would view the transfer as a significant goodwill gesture and mentioned she was unaware of any current contacts between Trump and Kim, though she described the private relationship between the leaders as “glorious.”
Trump mentioned on the White Home on Wednesday that he expected to meet Kim later this year, probably reviving diplomacy that stalled after a sequence of unprecedented summits in 2018 and 2019 collapsed over disagreements on sanctions aid and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
