Anchor: The South Korean Defense Ministry says North Korea is now capable of producing about ten nuclear bombs. In its latest White Paper, the ministry said the North has produced an additional ten kilograms of plutonium over the last eight years.
Kim Bum-soo has more on the military assessment.

Report: The South Korean Defense Ministry says North Korea possesses over 50 kilograms of plutonium.

That's worth ten nuclear warheads, given that four to six kilograms of the nuclear chemical are needed for a bomb.

The Defense Ministry on Wednesday issued its latest White Paper, analyzing the North's military capabilities. 

The Defense White Paper estimated that the North has roughly 50 kilograms of plutonium produced by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear facility. In 2008, the government said that the North had 40 kilograms of the nuclear chemical. 

A ministry official explained that the latest evaluation is based on the timing of the reactivation and stoppage of reactor operations, the scale of spent fuel reprocessing and how much plutonium is consumed at nuclear experiments in the North.  

The ministry also said that the North's highly-enriched uranium(HEU) program also made significant advancements.

However, the White Paper said that Pyongyang is yet to complete the development of its intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM). Citing a series of launch failures for the already-deployed road-mobile intermediate-range Musudan missile, an official explained that it is difficult to determine the stability of the North's longer-range weapons. 

In addition to the nuclear and missile threats, the Defense Ministry listed North Korean cyber and terror attack capabilities for the first time in the report.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.

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