Chinese experts have reportedly warned the United States earlier this year that North Korea's nuclear arsenal was growing and much larger than previously estimated.
By Beijing's estimate, North Korea may already have produced 20 nuclear warheads and was capable of producing enough weapons-grade uranium to double that amount by next year. U.S. experts had previously estimated that North Korea had between 10 and 16 nuclear weapons, reported Fox News.
The Chinese estimates were presented to U.S. nuclear specialists behind a closed door meeting at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing this past February.
Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University professor and former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who attended the February meeting, said that he was concerned that the nation would have a nuclear arsenal by 2020 and added that the more they believed they had a fully functional nuclear arsenal, the more difficult it will be to walk them back from that.
The warning created an increased security threat to the U.S. and its East Asian allies. (ANI)
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