Text/Captain Fishtail
As we all know, nuclear weapons are considered "doomsday weapons" because of their great lethality, and they are currently the weapons that are most likely known to lead to human self-destruction. However, nuclear weapons are also the strongest guarantee of national security, so in the last century, when the United States and the Soviet Union competed for global hegemony, some countries competed to carry out nuclear weapons research in order to ensure their own security.
In order to maintain world peace and the strategic balance of major powers, and to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons around the world, which can be used by lawbreakers and careerists. In 1968, under the initiative of the United States and the Soviet Union, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which stipulated that countries that studied nuclear weapons after 1967 were illegal nuclear weapons and would be sanctioned or even attacked by the United Nations.
China, the United States, Britain, France, and Russia, which are the five permanent members of the United Nations, all possessed nuclear weapons before the conclusion of the 1968 treaty. As the main victors of World War II, the P5 became the defenders of the new world order, so the P5 has also become recognized as the only five legally armed states.
However, because the geopolitical competition between major countries has not stopped, some weak countries are still secretly researching nuclear weapons in order to ensure their own security, resulting in the emergence of four "illegal nuclear" countries in the world: Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea. The path of Israel, Pakistan and India to nuclear weapons is very clear to the outside world, which is the result of mutual compromise between China, the United States, Russia (the Soviet Union) in those years. But the source of North Korea's nuclear weapons technology has been widely debated, as a country that has long been subject to US sanctions and self-isolation, how did North Korea acquire advanced nuclear technology?
It was widely believed that North Korea, as the gateway to northeast China, has a strategic relationship with China, and helping North Korea "possess nuclear weapons" can not only ensure national security, but also form a deterrent to the US-Japan-ROK alliance.
However, China and the United States, as the two major chess players in East Asia, have their own considerations. If China takes the initiative to help North Korea "possess nuclear weapons", it will prompt the United States to allow Japan and South Korea to also develop nuclear weapons, which is extremely unfavorable to China. As an active volcanic crater bordering North Korea, Changbai Mountain can easily cause geological disasters if it is urged by the seismic waves of North Korea's nuclear test. Moreover, China's military is strong enough to ensure North Korea's security, so China has no incentive to help North Korea develop nuclear weapons.
After excluding China, it is necessary to analyze the source of North Korea's nuclear weapons from these two key aspects.
First: North Korea's source of nuclear fission technology
Korea has not always been poor and backward, thanks to the help of the socialist family in the last century and the heavy industrial base left over from the Japanese colonial era in the north. As early as the 60s, North Korea has achieved full industrialization, and in the 60s ~ 80s, North Korea was called the "East Asian Twins" with the Japanese economy, when North Korea's per capita income and living standards far exceeded those of South Korea and China at the same time. It is precisely for this reason that in order to ensure national security, especially after the signing of the "peaceful use of nuclear energy" agreement between the United States and South Korea, North Korea has also begun to make breakthroughs in the nuclear field. In the early 60s, at the initiative of Kim Il Sung, Pyongyang established the first atomic energy research institute, and proposed to Big Brother that the Soviet Union learn relevant nuclear technology.
At that time, in order to win over North Korea, the Soviet Union not only accepted a large number of North Korean physics students to study nuclear technology in the Soviet Union, but also sent a large number of Soviet experts to North Korea to assist it in building basic nuclear reactors, which made North Korea begin to take a key step on the long road to nuclear weapons.
However, because of the subsequent signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and because nuclear technology was only a bargaining chip for the Soviet Union to woo North Korea, the Soviet Union soon suspended its assistance in North Korea's nuclear weapons research. Kim Il Sung then made a secret visit to China to ask for assistance, but there was no response from China, which forced North Korea to embark on the road of independent research and development.
Subsequently, after the return of groups of North Korean students studying in the Soviet Union, the relevant talents and knowledge in the nuclear field of the DPRK gradually increased. But knowledge is not enough, and it is not easy to acquire uranium-235, plutonium-239 and uranium-233, which are key materials for nuclear weapons. Although North Korea is extremely rich in mineral resources, only specialized centrifuges can separate their elements from these minerals, but due to the lack of centrifuge technology, North Korea's nuclear program has been stranded.
The father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons "Qadir Khan"
The second is: the source of the centrifuge
Although its nuclear program was temporarily stalled, North Korea did not give up its nuclear weapons development because of its lack of key technologies. Instead, centrifuge accessories and technology were collected through various channels, and in the 90s of the 20th century, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe caused the "underground nuclear black market" to flourish, and many countries, including Iran, Libya, North Korea, and India, were looking for underground suppliers to obtain nuclear technology to ensure national security. However, the emergence of one person accelerated North Korea's path to nuclear weapons: "Qadir Khan", the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. He sympathized with North Korea's international situation, arranged for assistants to secretly help North Korea contact manufacturers and design drawings to buy centrifuges, and shipped important parts to North Korea for assembly guidance, so that North Korea really had the ability to build nuclear weapons.
At the same time, the deteriorating economic situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union also caused a large number of former Soviet specialists engaged in the military industry to face the situation of difficulty supporting their families. European and American countries also rushed to Russia to recruit scientific and technological talents and technology, but many Soviet experts with red ideals refused the temptation of the West to pay high salaries and went to work in North Korea, which was also socialist. It is reported that the former Soviet military expert team of about 100 people went to work in North Korea, which provides North Korea with a key window to accelerate the development of nuclear weapons.
It is worth noting that nuclear weapons require powerful delivery vehicles to have strike capabilities, this is the truth of guns and bullets, otherwise there are bullets but no guns, this is also for nothing.
Later, with the help of Soviet experts, North Korea absorbed the technology of the R-27 missile and successively developed short-range missiles including the Polaris series. In the past decade, it has been self-reliant, using transcendent propulsion technology to develop the "Mars" series of intercontinental missiles, with a range of up to 14,000 kilometers, which can deter the US mainland. This has put enormous pressure on the US-Japan-ROK military alliance, and North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles provide the strongest guarantee for its national security in the special geopolitical context of East Asia.
In short, North Korea has been blocked and sanctioned by the United States and the West in recent decades, and although the economy has been bad, North Korea has created this series of heavy defense weapons. North Korea's bumpy road to nuclear weapons also reminds me of China at that time, under the dual military coercion of the United States and the Soviet Union, if it had not developed nuclear weapons and a series of powerful national defense military forces on its own, it would not have today's status as a great power.
This article was originally published by Captain Fishtail!