With the story of North Korea’s nuclear programme commencing in the 1950s under Kim Il Sung, following the end of the Soviet support and the imbalance of power with South Korea, Pyongyang began to see nuclear weapons not only as a deterrent, but as a necessary tool for regime survival. In this episode of The Arms Control Poseur, host Dr Alexander Bollfrass is joined by leading nuclear policy experts Dr Jingdong Yuan, Dr Daniel Salisbury and Ankit Panda to deep dive into the closed world of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions – from its Cold War roots to its modern missile arsenal and the collapse of every diplomatic effort to stop its advance. Decades of research, insights shared by intelligence leaks and firsthand accounts explain why North Korea won’t give up its nuclear weapons, what that means for US and South Korean security policy and what challenges arise for arms control on the Korean peninsula. 

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‘The Arms Control Primer’ is a podcast series produced by the IISS Strategy, Technology and Arms Control Programme on behalf of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium

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