And it could get that number up to 130 by the end of the decade.
The worlds nuclear powers are cagey about the exact nature of their nukes.
One of its big projects is the Nuclear Notebook, aconstantly updating listof the worlds nuclear weapons.
Credit: DPRK image via the Korean Central News Agency
In North Korea, its almost impossible.
North Korea was not always as closed as it is now.
Kim Jong-un loves to pose with nukes and launchers in parades.
In its research, the FAS identified three kinds of North Korean warheads which it gave nicknames.
The names stuck and the FAS ran with them.
Theres the disco ball, which the DPRK first showed off in 2016.
Supposedly, this is a single-stage implosion nuke.
Basically, its a big silver ball with a bit of nuclear material surrounded by high explosives.
The implosion of the high explosives would trigger the nuclear explosion.
This is similar to the nuclear equipment detonated at the Trinity site inOppenheimer.
In 2017, Kim Jong Un posed with what the FAS dubbed the peanut.
This is supposedly a two-stage thermonuclear unit.
FAS said in its report that the peanut might not be a thermonuclear weapon at all, however.
This could be a gear filled with tritium, which would improve the efficiency of a single-stage gear.
In 2023, the DPRK unveiled photos of what the FAS called the olive.
Based on the available knowledge, FAS also tried to guess how much nuclear material North Korea has.
It then used that number to extrapolate the number of nukes its sitting on.
Its estimates were conservative.
Some, but not all, countries with nukes maintain something called a no-first-use policy.
Its a codified promise that theyll only use their nukes if someone else attacks them with nukes first.
China has a no-first-use policy.
The United States and Russia do not.
North Korea once promised it would never use nuclear weapons preemptively, but its changed its mind.
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