This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The Taliban in Afghanistan, who took control of the nation when Joe Biden abruptly withdrew American military personnel, leaving behind thousands of civilians and billions of dollars worth of American war machinery, now reportedly are seeking access to nuclear weapons, or weapons of mass destruction.

Biden a few years ago abruptly pulled American troops out of the troubled nation in a scheme that cost more than a dozen American lives.

Then the Taliban took over control, gaining access to war machinery that the U.S. had stockpiled there for years.

On the Americans' exit, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and the Taliban declared victory, taking control of all parts of the government.

Congressional leaders called Biden's plan an "unmitigated disaster."

Now a report from the Middle East Media Research Institute reveals the Taliban's interest in nukes.

It reported, "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA, i.e., the Afghan Taliban) is caught in an international controversy after it has come to light that an eight-member official Taliban delegation secretly visited North Korea to discuss cooperation on nuclear weapons technology."

The report said it's not been noticed much, but Afghanistan "has a long-standing nuclear energy program that was taken over by the Taliban mujahideen when they took control of Afghanistan in August 2021."

"I have reports indicating that a group of the Taliban is looking into how to access tactical nuclear weapons. Whether they can get them from Pakistan or pay engineers to get them. That is going to be a disaster," explained Rahmatullah Nabil, the former chief of Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, at a recent conference.

MEMRI noted, "Since Nabil belongs to the camp of the Taliban's political opponents, his comments were not taken seriously by many. However, on December 26, 2023, Sami Yousafzai, a senior Afghan journalist known for authoritative reports on Afghanistan and Pakistan, tweeted that the Taliban rulers are attempting to acquire nuclear weapons, and several Western intelligence agencies, alerted by Nabil's comment, have launched investigations into the Taliban's connections to North Korea."

The delegation reportedly included multiple leaders from the Taliban's Ministry of Defense as well as Maulvi Abdul Rasheed Munib, the security chief of Kandahar.

There was much secrecy around the reported visit, and Taliban officials have remained silent.

The report noted Afghanistan's neighbors, Iran, Russia, Pakistan, and China, all are friendly with Afghanistan, and Russia, Pakistan and China all have such weapons.