Trump Says North Korea Has 57 Nuclear Weapons, Signals Possible Meeting With Kim Jong Un
US President Donald Trump says North Korea has 57 nuclear weapons and has indicated that he plans to meet Kim Jong Un later this year
HENRY GERCHI 
Washington, August 20, 2026 — US President Donald Trump has claimed that North Korea possesses 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, offering an unusually precise figure for Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.
Trump made the statement while speaking to reporters at the White House, where he also indicated that he expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. He did not provide a specific date or location for the proposed meeting. Reuters
The claim is significant because the United States has traditionally not publicly disclosed a precise figure for North Korea’s nuclear warheads. Trump did not explain whether the figure of 57 came from a classified US intelligence assessment or another source. NK News - North Korea News
Estimates differ
Independent assessments have generally placed North Korea's nuclear arsenal in a similar range, although there is considerable uncertainty because the country’s nuclear programme is highly secretive.
The Federation of American Scientists previously estimated that North Korea had around 50 assembled nuclear warheads, while possessing enough fissile material to potentially produce additional weapons. Fox News
However, South Korea's Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back has since given a considerably higher estimate, saying North Korea could possess between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads. He stressed that the exact number cannot be independently verified by South Korean authorities. Reuters
Trump's figure of 57 should therefore be treated as a presidential claim rather than a independently verified count.
Trump wants another meeting with Kim
Trump also expressed confidence in his relationship with Kim Jong Un and said he expects to meet the North Korean leader later this year.
The two leaders previously held historic summits in Singapore in 2018 and Hanoi in 2019, while Trump also became the first sitting US president to enter North Korea during a meeting at the Korean Demilitarised Zone in 2019.
However, formal negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programme stalled after the 2019 Hanoi summit.
North Korea remains sceptical
Trump's renewed outreach has not been warmly received by Pyongyang.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister and a senior North Korean official, said she was unaware of any recent official communications between Washington and Pyongyang. She nevertheless acknowledged that the personal relationship between Trump and Kim remains positive. The Guardian
North Korea has also criticised the United States and South Korea's joint military exercises as provocative, despite Washington's decision to scale back some of the drills.
The tensions continued on Thursday, when North Korea reportedly launched around 10 short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast. AP News
What the development means
Trump's disclosure comes at a sensitive moment in US-North Korean relations. His willingness to acknowledge North Korea's existing nuclear capability, combined with his stated intention to meet Kim again, could signal a shift towards managing the nuclear threat rather than insisting immediately on complete denuclearisation.
For now, however, there is no confirmed date for another Trump-Kim summit, and the two sides remain divided over North Korea's nuclear status, military exercises and sanctions.
