Siegfried Hecker , former director of Los Alamos National laboratory, developing American nuclear weapons, assessed the nuclear potential of North Korea, reports the Daily Express.
According to Hecker, the DPRK has 25 to 48 kilograms of plutonium and 650 to 800 kilograms of highly enriched uranium at its disposal. This is enough to make about 45 nuclear weapons.
Hecker believes that North Korean missiles with nuclear warheads can strike throughout South Korea and most of Japan. At the same time, the intercontinental missiles that are being developed in the DPRK require additional tests. “In other words, North Korea cannot yet strike the main territory of the United States with an intercontinental missile with a nuclear warhead, but work in this direction continues,” the specialist explained.
Hecker believes that in 2019, the United States and the DPRK had a chance to agree on nuclear disarmament. According to him, the US President Donald Trump missed this chance when he left Hanoi ahead of schedule. negotiations with the leader of the DPRK Kim Jong-un .
From 1986 to 1997, Siegfried Hecker headed the Los Alamos National Laboratory – one of two institutions in the United States where secret work on nuclear weapons is carried out. Since 2004, he has visited the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center annually, the largest nuclear facility in the DPRK.
According to confidential report UN North Korea continues the development of nuclear weapons, and some countries believe that Pyongyang may already have created miniature nuclear devices. The document stated that the country is producing highly enriched uranium and is building an experimental light water reactor.