One of the more concerning aspects of North Korea’s ongoing nuclear and military modernization plan is the development of tactical nuclear weapons. Leader Kim Jong Un identified these as among his top modernization priorities at the Eighth Party Congress in Jan. 2021, and state media reports on a recent military meeting have raised the possibility that the DPRK seeks to deploy these weapons to “front-line” units.

North Korea’s interest in tactical nuclear weapons is a straightforward extension of its longstanding nuclear strategy, which reserves the right to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict to degrade