•It asked Moscow and Beijing for help in developing nuclear weapons but was rejected; however, managed to get some Soviet help in nuclear research in the 1960s; eventually, DPRK could develop its own nuclear program, or for that matter, missile program • DPRK’s nuclear weapons could date back to at least the 1980s. It would argue that the weapons would serve as a “nuclear deterrent for self-defence” •By 2009, if not earlier, DPRK was a full nuclear power; it isalso known to have developed weapons of mass destruction and exported its nuclear and missile technology to other countries like Pakistan, Iran and others