N Korea has 50 kgs of plutonium: Seoul

A South Korean Defence Ministry report says that North has extracted 110 pounds of plutonium that can build as many as seven nuclear weapons.

North Korea is believed to have extracted up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of plutonium that can build as many as seven nuclear weapons, according to a South Korean Defence Ministry report released by a lawmaker on Thursday.

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The communist nation is also working to make a small and lightweight nuclear warhead that can be mounted atop a ballistic missile, said the ministry, according to an internal assessment released by Song Young-sun, a lawmaker from the main opposition Grand National Party.

The assessment was made in a top military officials' meeting a day after the North's October 9 nuclear test.

Currently, the North is believed to have built a nuclear warhead weighing some two to three tons, said the ministry. To be mounted on a missile, the warhead would need to be less than one ton, the ministry said.

The North can also drop nuclear bombs with its Russian-made bombers, said the ministry, adding that the North has 82 Il-28 bombers at bases in Uiju and Jangjin.

The North stunned the world in 1998 by firing a long-range ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean and it also test-fired seven missiles in July, including a long-range missile believed capable of reaching the United States that crashed shortly after launch.