Seoul says North has 10 nukes

NORTH Korea now has enough plutonium to make 10 nuclear bombs, South Korea said yesterday, a week after leader Kim Jong-un said it was close to testlaunching an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The isolated communist state, which has carried out five nuclear tests and numerous missile launches, is thought to be planning a nuclear push in 2017 as it seeks to develop a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland.

Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realising its full nuclear ambitions, but all agree it has made enormous strides since Kim took over as leader in December 2011.

Seoul’s defence ministry said the North is believed to have some 50 kilograms of weaponsgrade plutonium as of the end of 2016.

US think tank the Institute for Science and International Security estimated in June that the North’s total nuclear arsenal was more than 21 bombs, up from 10-16 weapons in 2014, based on estimates of plutonium and uranium.

The North has boosted plutonium supplies by reactivating its once-mothballed nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, the defence ministry said.

North Korea deactivated the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after Pyongyang’s third nuclear test in 2013.