North Korea had a record-busting 2022. It fired more missiles than ever before in a single year. In fact, a quarter of all missiles North Korea has ever launched hit the skies in 2022. It was also the year that Kim Jong-un declared that North Korea had become a nuclear weapons state and that its weapons were here to stay. This has raised tensions on the Korean peninsula to their highest since 2017, when then US President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with "fire and fury".
So, what comes next?
In 2022, North Korea made significant progress on its weapons. It began the year by testing short-range missiles designed to hit South Korea, followed by mid-range ones that can target Japan. By the end of the year it had successfully tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile to date - the Hwasong 17, which in theory is capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland.
