North Korea gives rare view of uranium enrichment site during Kim Jong Un’s visit

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a uranium enrichment facility and requested new centrifuges to produce more weapons material for nuclear bombs, state media KCNA reported on Friday.

The report on Kim’s visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and a nuclear weapons material production base was accompanied by photographs that give a rare look at North Korea’s nuclear program, which is banned under several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The photos showed Kim walking between long rows of metal centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium. The report did not specify when the visit took place or the location of the facility.

Kim urged workers to produce more materials for tactical nuclear weapons, saying the country’s nuclear arsenal is vital to countering threats from the United States and its allies.

The weapons are needed for “self-defense and the ability to strike preemptively,” he said.

The North Korean leader said “nuclear threats against the DPRK” by “subordinate powers led by US imperialists” have crossed a red line, according to the report.

North Korea is believed to have several uranium enrichment sites. Analysts say commercial satellite images have shown construction in recent years at Yongbyon’s central Nuclear Scientific Research Center, including the uranium enrichment plant, suggesting possible expansion.

Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element. To produce nuclear fuel, raw uranium undergoes processes that result in a material with an increased concentration of the isotope uranium-235.

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

Kim stressed the need to increase the number of centrifuges to “exponentially increase” nuclear weapons and expand the use of a new type of centrifuge to further boost the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials.

The new type of centrifuge shows North Korea is advancing its fuel cycle capabilities, said Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Kim also appears to be suggesting that North Korea’s tactical nuclear weapons designs may rely primarily on uranium for their cores,” he said.

That’s notable because North Korea is more capable of growing its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Panda said, compared to the more complicated process for plutonium.

Estimates of the number of North Korean nuclear weapons vary widely. In July, a report by the Federation of American Scientists concluded that the country may have produced enough fissile material to make up to 90 nuclear warheads, but that closer to 50 have probably been assembled.

Kim also oversaw the test launch of a new 600mm multiple missile system on Thursday and inspected the training base of the North Korean military’s special operations force to guide a fighter exercise held on Wednesday, according to separate KCNA reports.

In a statement broadcast by KCNA, North Korea’s foreign ministry institute spokesman criticized a recent ministerial meeting between member states of the UN-led United Nations Command in Seoul, calling it a “war organization.”

Germany joined the administration last month, becoming the 18th nation in a group that helps police the heavily fortified border with North Korea and has pledged to defend the South in the event of war.