North Korea has offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium, as state media reports that leader Kim Jong Un visited the area and called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” increase its number of nuclear weapons.
It’s unclear whether the site is at North Korea’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it’s the North’s first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010.
While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the US and its allies, the images released by North Korean media of the area on Friday could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.
During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the facility producing weapons-grade nuclear materials, Kim expressed “great satisfaction repeatedly over the wonderful technical force of the nuclear power field” held by North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The KCNA said Kim went around the control room of the uranium enrichment facility and a construction site that would expand its capacity for producing nuclear weapons.
North Korean state media photos showed Kim being briefed by scientists while walking along long lines of centrifuges. The KCNA didn’t say when Kim visited the facilities or where they are located.
The agency said that Kim stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges to “exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defence”, a goal he has repeatedly stated in recent years. It said Kim ordered officials to push forward the introduction of a new type of centrifuge.
Kim said North Korea needs greater defence and pre-emptive attack capabilities because “anti-(North Korea) nuclear threats perpetrated by the US imperialist-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the red line,” the KCNA said.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry strongly condemned North Korea’s push to boost its nuclear capability. A ministry statement said North Korea’s “illegal” pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of UN prohibitions is a serious threat to international peace. It said North Korea must realise it cannot win anything with its nuclear programme.
North Korea first showed a uranium enrichment site in Yongbyon to the outside world in November 2010, when it allowed a visiting delegation of Stanford University scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to tour its centrifuges. North Korean officials then reportedly told Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were installed and running at Yongbyon.
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Since then, satellite images have shown increased uranium enrichment activity at Yongbyon, leading to suspicions that North Korea is covertly running at least one other uranium-enrichment plant.
It’s not clear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium have been produced at Yongbyon and elsewhere. In 2018, scholars estimated North Korea’s highly enriched uranium inventory was 250 to 500 kilogrammes, sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices.
Since 2022, North Korea has sharply ramped up its weapons testing activities to expand and modernise its arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the US and South Korea.
The nuclear drive comes as North Korea deepens its military cooperation with Russia. The US and South Korea have accused North Korea of supplying badly needed conventional arms to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine in return for military and economic aid.
