On March 24, 2026, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un made it official that his country is now an unapologetic nuclear weapons power. In an address to the rubber stamp Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim stated: “We will continue to firmly consolidate our status as a nuclear-armed state as an irreversible course, while aggressively stepping up our struggle against hostile forces.” He added that “we will, in line with the mission entrusted by the Constitution of the Republic… further expand and advance our self-defensive nuclear deterrent.”
His comments should have surprised no one. There has been mounting evidence for years that Pyongyang has built and deployed a small arsenal of such weapons. North Korean officials no longer even bothered to pretend that their country was willing to relinquish its nuclear ambitions if the United States, South Korea, and other powers would make sufficient policy concessions to guarantee the North’s security.
Even before Kim’s latest speech, DPRK officials made it clear that any continuing Western demand for a nonnuclear North Korea was a hopeless nonstarter. In April 2025, Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister and powerful adviser, warned: “If the U.S. and its vassal forces [Washington’s East Asian allies] continue to insist on anachronistic ‘denuclearization,’ it will only give unlimited justness and justification to the advance of the DPRK aspiring after the building of the strongest nuclear force for self-defense.”
In late July, she emphasized that any effort to continue denying her country its legitimate status as a nuclear power “will be thoroughly rejected.” Kim Yo-jong added: “It is worth taking into account the fact that the year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019.” Specifically, the North’s “capabilities and geopolitical environment have radically changed.” She was especially referring to Pyongyang’s growing military ties to Russia. That bilateral relationship was not a trivial matter. Moscow’s previous quiet opposition to the DPRK’s nuclear aspirations has vanished as North Korea deployed ground combat personnel and gave other support to Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Kim’s regime unsurprisingly portrays its nuclear arsenal as a purely defensive deterrent to possible U.S. and South Korean aggression. DPRK leaders always cite a long list of grievances against Seoul and Washington. Many of them are thoroughly familiar, especially the annual joint military exercises featuring air, ground, and naval forces from the two countries. Some of Pyongyang’s complaints are new, however, and they specifically cite Washington’s military actions against Venezuela and Iran. In his recent speech, Kim charged that the U.S. is “carrying out acts of state terrorism and aggression across the world.” He added that Washington and its allies “are constantly bringing nuclear strategic assets into the areas surrounding our country, shaking the foundations of regional security.”
Some analysts suspect that North Korean leaders now firmly believe that the aggressive actions by the United States and Israel validate the wisdom of Pyongyang’s decision to retain the country’s nukes. Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, concludes that “Iran’s experience once again confirmed what the North Koreans have always known, (that) in the modern world, the only security guarantee is, well, nuclear weapons.” Indeed, Kim explicitly cites the attack on Iran as justifying the DPRK’s stance.
U.S. policy toward North Korea is stuck in a time warp that is totally detached from reality. Washington still pursues the fanciful objective of inducing or compelling the DPRK to return to nuclear virginity. U.S. leaders since George H. W. Bush have made that demand the central feature of U.S. policy regarding the Korean peninsula.
It was an impractical objective even during the 1990s and the earliest years of the twenty-first century. It is laughably delusional in 2026. No matter how frustrating and repulsive it might be for U.S. officials to acknowledge that the horribly repressive DPRK regime possesses a credible nuclear arsenal, it does no good to deny such an obvious and important truth.
Experts at the U.S. Arms Control Association estimate that North Korea has assembled approximately 50 warheads. The DPRK also is building an increasingly capable ballistic missile system to deliver such weapons. Kim’s government has tested several long-range missiles, and there are credible indications that such missiles already may have sufficient range to reach the continental United States.
It is worse than useless to ignore Pyongyang’s mounting nuclear and missile capabilities. Yet at the present time, the United States has no formal relations whatsoever with a volatile regional power that could do serious damage to America’s economic and security interests. That situation must change promptly. The Trump administration needs to initiate a wide-ranging, pragmatic dialogue with Pyongyang
The first step should be for the United States to at long last extend official recognition to the DPRK. Establishing a U.S. embassy in Pyongyang and a DPRK embassy in Washington are other important steps that ought to follow quickly. The next crucial move would be to replace the 1953 armistice with a peace treaty officially ending the Korean war.
In the meantime, military leaders in both countries need to work on practical arrangements to reduce tensions and greatly diminish the danger of an accidental armed clash between U.S. and DPRK forces on the Korean Peninsula and throughout Northeast Asia. The current combination of chronic severe tensions and a lack of dialogue create a high probability of tragedy. The United States already is entangled in a horribly destructive war in the Middle East against Iran. We should not needlessly court the danger of triggering an even more perilous major conflict on the other side of the Pacific.
