At the start of 2022, nine states—the United States, Russia, the United King­ dom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Repub­ lic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea)—possessed approximately 12 705 nuclear weapons, of which 9440 were estimated to be in military stockpiles for potential use. About 3732 of these warheads were estimated to be deployed with operational forces (see table 10.1), and around 2000 of these were kept in a state of high operational alert.