Why does North Korea have nuclear weapons?
Security and status. The North Korean government fears overthrow from the combined forces of South Korea and the United States, and sees nukes as an insurance policy to compensate for North Korea’s limited conventional military capability. North Korea has a numerically huge army and could destroy much of Seoul with artillery and rockets, but could not conquer South Korea and could not survive a determined effort by its adversaries to roll back North Korea and destroy its government–not that Seoul and Washington intend to do this, but Pyongyang must prepare for this contingency. Deploying nuclear weapons also bring status to the Pyongyang regime by elevating North Korea into the exclusive nuclear club. This provides the government with a rare success in the eyes of the North Korean people, who wait in vain for the prosperity promised by their leaders.
