South Korea's defence minister estimated on Wednesday that North Korea possesses 80 to 120 nuclear warheads, a figure significantly higher than the 57 weapons cited by U.S. President Donald Trump after Trump ordered a reduction in joint military exercises with Seoul.
The diverging assessments surface as Trump eyes a possible meeting with Kim Jong Un in November on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, hoping to restart diplomacy stalled since 2019.
Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader's sister, dismissed the shortened drills as lacking substantive goodwill, noting the exercises will end this Friday rather than the originally planned 27 August. She did, however, describe the personal relationship between her brother and Trump as "truly very good", even while saying she was unaware of any recent direct contact between the two leaders.