Nuclear technology capacity and public opinon in South Korea, Japan, and North Korea... by the numbers!
North Korea
Japan
South Korea
Public Opinion
North Korea Public Opinion: As a closed nation, polling information from North Korea is not available.
Materials
North Korea
South Korea
Japan
Nuclear reactors
[1]A Fun Size bag of M&Ms is currently $2.89. "Target : Expect More. Pay Less." Target : Expect More. Pay Less. Accessed December 1, 2016. http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=m.
Sources for charts and graphs on nuclear materials and facilities:
Albright, Dacid, and Serena Kelleher-Vergantini. "Plutonium, Tritium, and Highly Enriched Uranium Production at the Yongbyon Nuclear Site." June 14, 2016. Accessed November 5, 2016.
"Fuel Cycle Front End." Nuclear Power in South Korea | Nuclear Energy in the Republic of Korea - World Nuclear Association. Accessed November 05, 2016. http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-o-s/south-korea.aspx.
"North Korea Ramps up Uranium Enrichment, Enough for Six Nuclear Bombs a Year: Experts." Reuters. 2016. Accessed November 05, 2016. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-fuel-idUSKCN11K07Y.
"Yongbyon 5MWe Reactor." Yongbyon 5MWe Reactor | Facilities | NTI. Accessed November 27, 2016. http://www.nti.org/learn/facilities/766/.
Co$t of nuclear weapons
*All spending is presented in 2007 U.S. dollars
Sources: CIA World factbook. We used the CIA’s method of calculating GDP based on purchasing power parity, not exchange rate.
South Korea does not currently possess stockpiles of fissile materials (Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium).
Cost Is No Barrier
It would only cost one country more than $25 per capita to build 100 nuclear warheads a year. For some of the countries building a nuclear warhead - at 100/year - would be cheaper than buying a fun size bag of M&Ms.[1] China, for example, would only need to spend $0.37 per capita. India and Brazil could both spend less than a Fun Size bag of M&Ms as well.
To take it to the next level and actually deploy these warheads would require the nations studied to spend less than 1% of their GDP on their nuclear weapons programs. The two exceptions are North Korea (9.24%) and Israel (2%).
These numbers are based on United States nuclear weapons program spending (1951-1965) in its early years.
Source: 日本の核武装「議論だけでも行うべき」が９６％.産経新聞.2010.12.16.
*The public opinion poll on the left comes from a more conservatice source.
Special thanks to Yeo-Ri Kim for Japanese to English translation!
Source: 他国からの軍事的脅威に備え、日本も核武装をするべきだとの意見があります。あなたはこれに賛成ですか？反対 72.8%, フジテレビ, 2009年4月2日調査・4月5日放送
Source: 한국갤럽 데일리 오피니언 제194호. 2016년1월6일. (Gallup Korea.)