North Korea yesterday unveiled a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels, with leader Kim Jong-un announcing plans to bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.”
Some experts still question whether North Korea has functioning nuclear missiles that could reach the US mainland, but the nuclear plant’s disclosure implies that Kim is eager to cement his country’s status as a nuclear power and has no intentions of placing his bomb program on a negotiating table.
After visiting the site on Wednesday, Kim said he and other top officials “confirmed the order of priority for implementing the ambitious future plan designed to beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Photo: Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP
The facility used “more sophisticated technology,” the KCNA said, but did not provide further details such as its location.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff assessed the site as a uranium enrichment plant and said it was closely coordinating with the US to monitor North Korean nuclear activities.
KCNA photos showed Kim walking through narrow aisles lined with dense rows of silver tubes and pipes in what appeared to be a centrifuge hall. Another image showed him speaking with senior officials in a meeting room, where a blurred graphic depicting a cone-shaped object was spread across a table. It was not immediately clear whether the graphic showed a warhead design.
It is the third time that North Korea has disclosed a uranium enrichment site. In 2024, it released photos of another covert uranium-enrichment plant. In 2010, North Korea showed one at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting US academics.
South Korean Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young last year said North Korea was operating a total of four uranium enrichment facilities, including the Yongbyon complex, and that they were running everyday.
During his plant visit, Kim said the urgency for bolstering the country’s nuclear war deterrent has grown because of confrontations with “the most ferocious enemies,” an apparent reference to the US and South Korea.
Exercising “the position of a nuclear weapons state” is his country’s “invariable” stand, Kim said, adding that North Korea’s nuclear materials production capacity has more than doubled compared with five years ago.
Experts said Kim wants an international recognition as a nuclear state so he could demand the lifting of UN sanctions, and that he would ultimately push for arms reductions talks with the US as a way to win concessions in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.
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