Mary Beth D. Nikitin
Over the past decade, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) has advanced its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which has raised the threat Pyongyang poses to the U.S. homeland, U.S. allies in East Asia, and U.S. interests. In April 2026, a U.S. defense official testified that “North Korea’s nuclear forces are increasingly capable of targeting the U.S. Homeland, and its missile forces can strike South Korea and Japan with nuclear or conventional warheads.” The 2026 National Defense Strategy stated that these forces are “growing in size and sophistication, and they present a clear and present danger of nuclear attack on the American Homeland.”
U.S. policies and multiple UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions have imposed sanctions and called on North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in a “complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.” Since 2022, Russian and Chinese policies toward North Korea have shifted. The U.S. Forces Korea commander said in April 2025 that in return for North Korea’s assistance in its war against Ukraine, “Russia is expanding sharing of space, nuclear, and missile-applicable technology, expertise, and materials to the DPRK.”
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