Nuclear security

Pentagon Says North Korea’s Regime Has Staked Its Survival on Nuclear Weapons

North Korea is making strides in its cyber warfare abilities and has staked its survival on the rapid development of nuclear weapons, according to a Pentagon report, signaling the difficulties the U.S. confronts in seeking the complete “denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.

Kim Jong Un’s reclusive regime possesses “increasingly sophisticated cyber warfare capabilities” that are “capable of damaging and disruptive cyberattacks,” according to the newly obtained assessment sent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

At its heart, Kim’s regime “embraces the worldview of a garrison state, cultivating fears of an imminent threat and external hostility, which serves to justify draconian internal security controls, vast expenditures on the military, and the continued unchallenged rule by the Kim dynasty, which it portrays as uniquely able to defend Korea,” according to the report.

Coming less than a month before President Donald Trumpis due to meet Kim on June 12 in Singapore, the 23-page unclassified report reflects the Pentagon’s most current public assessment of the major nuclear and non-nuclear threats posed by North Korea as well as the internal and regional political dynamics shaping the regime.