North Korea: How is its nuclear-weapons threat expanding?

Ten years after taking power, Kim Jong Un faces what could be his toughest challenge yet. WSJ looks at how the North Korean leader is addressing the economic fallout from the pandemic, which has overshadowed weapons tests and affected relations with the US (Photo: AP)Premium
Ten years after taking power, Kim Jong Un faces what could be his toughest challenge yet. WSJ looks at how the North Korean leader is addressing the economic fallout from the pandemic, which has overshadowed weapons tests and affected relations with the US (Photo: AP)
 wsj 10 min read . Updated: 06 Oct 2022, 07:07 PM IST Timothy W. Martin, The Wall Street Journal

Kim Jong Un vows to continue advancing an arsenal that has the potential to hit anywhere in the US

North Korea sees its nuclear program as essential to regime survival, serving to deter a US-led invasion. Decades of denuclearization talks, economic sanctions and diplomacy have done little to slow Pyongyang’s advance to becoming a self-declared nuclear state.