Pyongyang
North Korea is developing nuclear weapons because it needs to save money, the regime of Kim Jong Il said this week. It was the most explicit public acknowledgment yet that the country has a nuclear weapons program. The official KCNA news service said that creating a nuclear deterrent would allow the country to cut back its conventional armed forces and spend more money on the poor. Famine-stricken North Korea currently spends nearly one-third of its gross domestic product on the military, while millions of its citizens suffer from malnutrition. Refugees who escaped North Korea told the London Daily Telegraph this week that people had resorted to eating human corpses.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Pentagon faces an uncertain future with TrumpTalking Point The president-elect has nominated conservative commentator Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department
-
This is what you should know about State Department travel advisories and warningsIn Depth Stay safe on your international adventures
-
'All Tyson-Paul promised was spectacle and, in the end, that's all we got'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
