Kim Jong-un’s speech to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly last week could have been reduced to a simple “I told you so.”
Since taking leadership in 2011, Kim has made his nuclear weapons program a national goal – almost a doctrine – arguing it is the only way for smaller powers to prevent superpowers from being “mercilessly violated.”
The current Middle East war, he told the North Korean parliament, proves that “the true guarantee of the existence of a state” is a nuclear deterrent – and he promised to expand it.
“This is their ultimate life insurance,” said former Canadian diplomat James Trottier, who led four official missions to Pyongyang.
After watching U.S. attempts at forced regime change in Iran – and previously in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan – “this strengthens their belief that they need their nuclear program for the regime’s survival,” Trottier said.
Kim has never made a secret of his nuclear and missile ambitions. Last weekend, Official photos showed the Supreme Leader observing the tests an improved “military force,” a fiery machine capable of transporting nuclear weapons to the U.S. mainland.
In early March, Kim demonstratively sent ten ballistic missiles 350 kilometers into the Sea of
And so it was with cruise missiles, tanks and artillery on display in North Korea while war raged in the Middle East.
Bitter words also came from Pyongyang, denouncing the United States and its “vassal” Israel as “rogue nations” carrying out “rogue acts of war” – reminiscent of Iran’s cries of “Death to America.”
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is considering “ending” military operations in the Middle East, even as he sends 2,500 additional Marines to the region and asks Congress for an additional $200 billion for the war against Iran. Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit by an airstrike on Saturday, an official Iranian news agency reported, saying there was no radiation leak.
And yet there is no major U.S. military campaign against North Korea. No loud threats from Washington. Not even a mention of North Korea at the latest US National Security Strategywhich lists global threats.
In contrast, the same report describes Iran as the “major destabilizing force.”
The US was worried about Iran, but not North Korea
The United States and Israel have justified the war against Iran as imperative on the grounds that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes the threat as “existential.” Without military action, he said, “we will face a nuclear Iran aimed at destroying us.”
Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes only, citing a “fatwa,” a religious ban on the development of nuclear weapons, issued by former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the mid-1990s.
So why is Iran a target and not North Korea?
That’s because Kim Jong-un already has a “robust” nuclear deterrent, said Ankit Panda, a geopolitics expert and author of Kim Jong-Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea.
Any attack on North Korea could quickly become a dangerous standoff between two nuclear powers, with Kim even better armed than he was seven years ago when negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump over limiting Kim’s arsenal collapsed.
North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capabilities are better tested and more advanced than during Trump’s first term.
“They are more experienced nuclear operators,” Panda said.
The Washington-based Arms Control Association Estimates North Korea now has at least 50 assembled nuclear warheads and enough radioactive material for 70 to 90 nuclear weapons.
Before the US-Israeli campaign against Iran last June, North Korea had an estimated 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium but had not yet built a nuclear weapon. The program was developed in underground bunkers and was largely hidden from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors. Who said it last month? As far as they know, “Iran had no program.”
Has Trump lost interest in North Korea?
Nevertheless, suspicion remains. International observers say Iran could have assembled five to eight fission weapons within a few weeks. Building a rocket from this would have taken significantly longer.
“This work, to our knowledge, did not continue after the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran in June 2025,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
Despite the threat from North Korea, Trump appears to have lost interest in Pyongyang since he decided to back away from attempts to negotiate an end to Kim’s nuclear obsession at three high-profile summits.
That friendship — complete with what Trump described as “love letters” between them — may have faltered, but there appear to be no hard feelings. There has only been one swipe at Kim since Trump’s re-election, when the North Korean leader attended a military parade in Beijing last September alongside the Russian and Chinese presidents. Trump called the trio an “axis of disruption” in a social media post.
Washington says Russia attacked North Korea with “defense cooperation” — including possible technical assistance with its nuclear program — in exchange for at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers who have joined Russia’s war with Ukraine.
In the heart of Pyongyang, Kim continues to regularly celebrate his successes with huge parades, a show of colorful dancers and deadly missiles.
All this despite increasingly harsh UN sanctions and economic hardships suffered by the average North Korean – 40 percent of the population is malnourished, says the World Food Program – because of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on nuclear weapons.
Trump has never said why he thinks Iran is more dangerous — or at least a more attractive target of its military strength. Its oil reserves are likely a factor.
Israel also reportedly plays a big role: Netanyahu has been itching for years to strike to stop the regime’s nuclear program, as well as his conventional ballistic missile threats and funding of a network of militant proxy groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, that have targeted Israel.
Netanyahu urged This time Trump joins him. Israel has the military might to be a powerful ally. financed on the order of billions per year from Washington – $21 billion alone since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
North Korea’s denuclearization “off the table”
North Korea could also be seen as an existential threat to two U.S. allies – South Korea and Japan – both of which have American bases housing a total of more than 70,000 U.S. troops. Politicians in both countries have considered arming themselves with their own nuclear deterrent, but that has not happened.
Seoul is 50 kilometers from the nearest North Korean arsenal – half the distance from Vancouver to Victoria.
And there is strong evidence that Kim has already helped Iran with its weapons program.
“North Korea’s Nodong missile, for example, is the template for Iran’s Shahab-3,” said analyst Panda.
Even during the Trump-Kim summit four years ago, Kim’s nuclear technology was reliable enough that American presidents “really wouldn’t risk attacking North Korea in a future crisis,” Panda said.
But if Trump has ruled out a military attack as too risky, what options does Washington have?
Most experts are pushing for negotiations, although Kim would make a much tougher deal now after watching the U.S. move against Kim, says Rachel Minyoung Lee of the Stimson Center’s Korea Program.
She says denuclearization of North Korea is now “off the table.”
“If there was an opportunity for meaningful engagement between the two countries before what’s happening in Iran right now, I think the bar has been raised much higher. Resuming future nuclear negotiations will only become more difficult,” she said.
After the attacks on Iran last June, Pyongyang did this required “the recognition of (North Korea’s) irreversible position as a nuclear weapons state” as a prerequisite for any agreement on the limits of its arsenal.
For any country thinking about building a nuclear deterrent – including Iran – the best way for the U.S. to deal with it is to try to negotiate its “most serious nuclear capabilities and a path to the bomb,” said Kimball of the Arms Control Association.
Even the most successful military campaign “cannot bomb away a well-established, well-distributed nuclear infrastructure and the knowledge behind it,” he said.
Iran may now be more determined than ever to arm itself to deter future attacks. like Kim apparently did.
