North Korea has a secret arsenal of SIXTY nuclear weapons, according to neighbours South Korea.
The figure was stated in Parliament by unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon, who said it was given to him by the intelligence services.
It is the first time the south has released an estimate of the number of weapons stockpiled by Kim Jong-un’s secretive state.
But Mr Cho stopped short of branding North Korea a nuclear state – meaning diplomatic efforts by the government in Seoul to get Kim’s regime to abandon its weapons look set to continue.
The North is said to have have produced around 110 pounds of weaponised plutonium, NBC News reports.
In April Kim met his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in and the neighbours agreed to sign a peace treaty by the end of the year.
But on Saturday North Korea dramatically ruled out nuclear disarmament – saying it does not have enough trust in the US.
The country’s Foreign Minister, Ri Yong ho, told the United Nations that continued sanctions on Pyongyang were deepening its mistrust in the United States.
He said: "Without any trust in the US there will be no confidence in our national security and under such circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first."
The Foreign Minister, representing ruler Kim Jong-un’s secretive state, said North Korea had made goodwill steps, but these had not been reciprocated.
It comes after US President Donald Trump praised Kim at the UN, a year on from branding him a "rocket man on a suicide mission".
"The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction, nuclear testing has stopped, some military facilities are already being dismantled," Trump said.
"I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done," Trump said. "The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearisation occurs."
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Trump’s remarks on North Korea were dramatically different to those in his speech last year at the U.N. assembly, when he threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea and mocked the North Korean leader.
He applauded Kim’s courage in taking some steps to disarm, but said much work needed to be done and sanctions must remain in place on North Korea until it denuclearises.
China and Russia have said the UN Security Council should reward Pyongyang for steps taken after Trump and Kim met in June and Kim pledged to work toward denuclearisation.
"The perception that sanctions can bring us on our knees is a pipe-dream of the people who are ignorant about us.
"But the problem is that the continued sanctions are deepening our mistrust," Ri said.
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