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North Korea releases rare images of uranium enrichment plant

September 13, 2024

North Korean state media published rare images from inside one of the country's nuclear facilities, though it did not say where Kim Jong Un had been, or when.

https://p.dw.com/p/4kZc4
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un tours facilities during a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials at an undisclosed location in North Korea
North Korea's nuclear facilities are not independently monitored and domestic images and footage are quite rareImage: KCNA via REUTERS

North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un inspected a nuclear facility and a uranium enrichment facility, state media reported on Friday, calling for new centrifuges to increase production of weapons-grade material for nuclear bombs.

The report by KCNA was accompanied by rare images showing a glimpse inside North Korea's nuclear program. However, the agency did not clarify when Kim went there or where the facility was located. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un tours facilities during a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials at an undisclosed location in North Korea
North Korean media did not say which facility Kim had visited, or whenImage: KCNA via REUTERS

Kim visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute and a production base for weapon-grade nuclear material, which are banned under multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. 

Kim repeats call for rapid nuclear expansion

He urged workers to produce more materials for nuclear bombs so that the country could be prepared to combat the United States and its allies.

Kim said the threats "have become more undisguised and crossed the red line."

North Korea must "steadily expand and bolster up its defense capability... and the capability for a preemptive attack with the nuclear force as a pivot."

This comes a day after North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into waters east of the Korean peninsula, as per Seoul's military. It was the North's first major weapons test since early July.

For the second time this week, KCNA reported Kim calling on North Korea to "exponentially" increase its nuclear arsenal. 

One issue Kim and North Korea has criticized of late is the expansion of the United Nations Command (UNC) which is a multinational military force meant to defend South Korea from the North.

Germany joined the grouping last month, to Kim's ire, and South Korea was holding a defense ministerial meeting with its member states earlier this week. 

What is the extent of North Korea's nuclear capabilities?

The new type of centrifuge in the images shared shows that North Korea is advancing its fuel cycle capabilities, Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Reuters.

"Kim also appears to suggest that North Korean tactical nuclear weapons designs may primarily rely on uranium for their cores," he said.

Analysts believe North Korea has several sites for enriching uranium and that commercial satellite imagery has shown construction in recent years at the main Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, which suggests expansion.

On Monday, Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the nuclear watchdog had observed activity consistent with the operation of a reactor and the reported centrifuge enrichment facility at Yongbyon.

The country has significantly boosted its weapons program since 2022 with a growing number of missile tests; its last nuclear test was in 2017.

Several analysts believe that while the North still has to overcome technological barriers to attain long-range ballistic missiles which could reach mainland US, it already possesses those which can hit key targets in South Korea and Japan.

mk/msh (AFP, Reuters)