South Korea estimates North Korea possesses between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads, its Defence Minister said on Thursday (August 20, 2026), citing a range significantly higher than U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that Pyongyang has 57 nuclear weapons.
Asked about Mr. Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers that North Korea was generally believed to have around 80 to 120 warheads, although he cautioned it was difficult to determine an exact figure.
Kim possessed 57 “very powerful nuclear weapons”, Mr. Ahn said, “the numbers appear somewhat different.”
Trump’s comment a day earlier that Mr.
South Korea has traditionally avoided publicly disclosing detailed estimates of North Korea’s nuclear stockpile and does not officially recognise Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state under its long-standing policy supporting denuclearisation. Mr. Ahn reiterated that position when asked whether the government acknowledged North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. Mr.
“We cannot officially acknowledge that,” he said. Ahn said South Korea would continue to rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, in line with Seoul’s longstanding non-nuclear policy.
Trump said at the White House on Wednesday (August 19, 2026) that he expected to meet Mr. Kim later this year, potentially reviving diplomacy that stalled after a series of unprecedented summits in 2018 and 2019 collapsed over disagreements on sanctions relief and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. Mr.
