Leo Szilard Lectureship Award Lecture: North Korea: Reactors, bombs and people*

In November 2010, during my seventh trip to North Korea, Pyongyang produced a big surprise--it decided to build its own light-water reactor and uranium enrichment plant. During my first visit I was shown plutonium produced in its Yongbyon nuclear complex to convince me they have the bomb. For nearly 40 years, Pyongyang has moved along parallel paths of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, opting to chose bombs over electricity. I will discuss how North Korea got the bomb, why it got it, and the prospects of whether or not it will give up the bomb. Finally, I will try to show with photos and stories of how North Korea is not such a hermit kingdom after all.