Situational Assessment
Policy Considerations
In the fall of 2025, the security situation around the Korean Peninsula underwent a qualitative shift due to the strengthening solidarity between North Korea, China, and Russia, the advancement of North Korean nuclear capabilities, and its openly coercive nuclear strategy. North Korea views nuclear weapons as an absolute guarantee of regime survival and a strategic tool to minimize cost in the unstable international environment. Following the 2021~2025 objectives set forth in the 8th Party Congress (2021), it has been continuously augmenting its capabilities including ICBM, solid fuel, super-large warhead, and nuclear submarine...
