North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium and called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” increase the number of his nuclear weapons, according to the state media on Friday (September 13). It's unclear if the site is at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it's the North's first public disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010.
The latest development may likely be an attempt to apply more pressure on the US and its allies as the images of the area released by the North Korean media could provide outsiders with a source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced so far.
During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-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 reported.
KCNA said that Kim went around the control room of the uranium enrichment base 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 tall gray tubes, however, there were no reports of the exact date of Kim’s visit to the facilities and their location.
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 already installed and running at Yongbyon.
Satellite images in recent years have indicated North Korea was expanding a uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Nuclear weapons can be built using either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce both at Yongbyon. It's not clear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium or highly enriched uranium has been produced at Yongbyon and where North Korea stores it.
Since 2022, North Korea has sharply ramped up weapons testing activities to expand and modernise its arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the US and South Korea. According to analysts, North Korea could perform nuclear test explosions or long-range missile tests ahead of the US presidential election in November with the intent to influence the outcome and increase its leverage in future dealings with the Americans.
North Korea had conducted test launches of multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday.
(With AP inputs)
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