Thirdly, North Korea could have gained plutonium from elsewhere, particularly the former Soviet Union. General Alexander Lebed has talked in general terms of some dozens of nuclear devices going missing in recent years. There's also the prospect that North Korea could have brought in raw materials and expertise which would have been less noticed than the full devices. In December 1992, a planeload of Russian nuclear scientists was stopped as it taxied on the runway to prepare to take off for Pyong Yang. Separately, reports have suggested that some 56 kilogrammes of plutonium might have been sold to North Korea - enough for eight bombs.
Nuclear proliferation is a delicate game on both sides.
It's also possible, of course, that North Korea would try t persuade the West that it did have nuclear weapons even when it didn't, just to increase its bargaining position. Thus, U. S. intelligence networks are puzzled by satellite photographs of a series of pits dug in the sands of River Kuryong in recent years, near to the Yongbyon facility. North Korea has also developed medium range missiles in recent years which could launch warheads. These missiles are notoriously unreliable but the fact remains that in war, North Korean planes could easily reach South Korea and Japan and simply drop the bomb, as the Enola Gay did over Hiroshima in August 1945. There is also one other real nuclear threat in the case of war.