North Korea offered a rare glimpse into a secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported yesterday that leader Kim Jong-un visited the area and called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” increase the number of his nuclear weapons.
It is unclear if the site is at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, but it is the North’s first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American academics in 2010.
While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the US and its allies, the images North Korea’s media released of the area could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.
Photo: AP
During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of 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.
KCNA said that Kim toured 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, but KCNA did not say when Kim visited the facilities or where they are.
KCNA said Kim stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges to “exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense,” a goal he has repeatedly stated in recent years.
It said Kim ordered officials to push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge, which has reached its completion stage.
Kim said North Korea needs greater defense and pre-emptive attack capabilities because “anti-[North Korea] nuclear threats perpetrated by the US imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the redline,” KCNA said.
The South Korean Ministry of Unification said it strongly condemned North Korea’s unveiling of a uranium enrichment facility and Kim’s vows to boost his country’s nuclear capability.
A ministry statement said North Korea’s “illegal” pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of UN bans is a serious threat to international peace.
North Korea must realize it cannot win anything with its nuclear program, it said.
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 academics led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to tour its centrifuges.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS