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.
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