N.Korea spent US$ 642 mn on nukes in 2021 – Report

KOREA: North Korea may have spent as much as $642 million on its nuclear programme last year, according to anti-nuclear activists, as the impoverished country appears ready to test a new weapon despite battling a COVID-19 outbreak and economic crisis.

There is no confirmed data on North Korea’s nuclear spending, or the size of its arsenal. Since 2006 it has conducted at least six nuclear tests, and appears to be preparing to resume testing for the first time since 2017.

In a report on global nuclear weapons spending released on Tuesday, the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said its estimate is based on the assumption that North Korea has continued to spend about a third of its gross national income (GNI) on its military, and about 6% of that military budget on nuclear weapons.

That estimate put North Korea as the lowest spender of the nine nuclear-armed countries covered by the ICAN report, spending about half as much as the next lowest country, Pakistan.

In an annual report released this week, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated that North Korea has assembled up to 20 warheads, and probably possessed sufficient fissile material for approximately 45–55 nuclear devices.

– THE HINDUSTAN TIMES