North Korea quietly ramps up its nuclear program

On Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reminded the world of Pyongyang's nuclear threat, announcing plans to bolster nuclear forces "at an exponential rate," as state media carried footage of Kim visiting what South Korea said was likely a new uranium enrichment plant.

The plant's unveiling came a week after the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement vowing that the "denuclearization" of North Korea "will never happen."

This was in response to the foreign ministers of the US, Japan, India and Australia, which comprises the so-called Quad grouping , calling for the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea after a meeting in New Delhi.

North Korea has become more defiant in building up its nuclear program, with Kim declaring in February 2026 that North Korea's status as a nuclear state is "completely and absolutely irreversible."

Kim also insisted that any negotiation or diplomatic engagement with the US was contingent on Washington recognizing North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

North Korea's nuclear program has drawn little attention so far during the second term of US President Donald Trump , who met Kim three times during his first term.

However, Trump's high-profile US-North Korea summits in 2018 and 2019, which focused on getting Kim to abandon his nuclear weapons , went nowhere. Since then, North Korea has been laying the institutional and physical groundwork for a more robust nuclear weapons program.

In 2023, North Korea amended its constitution to enshrine its "nuclear force-building policy." At the same time, Pyongyang has degraded ties with South Korea, calling it a "hostile state" and dropping any pretense of "reunification."