North Korea offers first glimpse into secretive uranium enrichment site

During tour of facility, Kim Jong Un urges workers to produce more materials for tactical nuclear weapons, says it is vital for confronting threats from the US and allies

This undated photo provided on September 13, 2024, by the North Korean government shows its leader Kim Jong Un, center, on an inspecting visit at what they say is an institute of nuclear weapons and a facility for nuclear materials at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
This undated photo provided on September 13, 2024, by the North Korean government shows its leader Kim Jong Un, center, on an inspecting visit at what they say is an institute of nuclear weapons and a facility for nuclear materials at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — North Korea for the first time showed images of the centrifuges that produce fuel for its nuclear bombs on Friday, as leader Kim Jong Un visited a uranium enrichment facility and called for more weapons-grade material to boost the arsenal.

The state media report on Kim’s visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and a production base for weapon-grade nuclear materials was accompanied by the first photos of the centrifuges, providing a rare look inside North Korea’s nuclear program, which is banned under multiple 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 make clear when the visit occurred or the facility’s location.

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

The weapons are needed for “self-defense and the capability for a preemptive attack,” he said.

The North Korean leader said “anti-DPRK nuclear threats” from the “US imperialists-led vassal forces” have crossed the red line, according to the report.

South Korea condemned North Korea’s unveiling of its uranium enrichment facility and will never accept Pyongyang’s possession of nuclear weapons, the South’s unification ministry said.

In this undated photo provided on September 13, 2024, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, center, walks with other officials near what it says is their new launch vehicle of 600mm multiple rockets at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korea is believed to have several sites for enriching uranium. Analysts say commercial satellite imagery has shown construction in recent years at the main Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, including its uranium enrichment plant, suggesting possible expansion.

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

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

New centrifuges

Kim stressed the need to boost the number of centrifuges so as to “exponentially increase” North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, and expand the use of a new type of centrifuge to strengthen the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials.

The centrifuges seen in the photos appear smaller and shorter than the types previously believed to be used by North Korea, suggesting it had developed its own centrifuges to enhance separation capabilities, said Lee Sang-kyu, a nuclear engineering expert at South Korea’s Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.

The photos also confirmed that the North is using a cascade system where large numbers of centrifuges are interconnected to achieve highly enriched uranium, he added.

In this undated photo provided on September 13, 2024, by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, center right, inspects what they say is test-firing from their new launch vehicle of 600mm multiple rockets at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

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 suggest that North Korean tactical nuclear weapons designs may primarily rely on uranium for their cores,” he said.

This is notable because North Korea is more able to scale up its highly enriched uranium stockpiles, Panda said, compared to the more complicated process for plutonium.

‘Increasing arsenals’

North Korea invited some foreign scientists to view a centrifuge facility at Yongbyon in 2010, but Jenny Town of the US-based Stimson Center said Friday’s report is the first and only photographs of the equipment.

“It shows how advanced their enrichment capability has become, which gives greater credibility to both their ability and commitment to increasing their nuclear weapons arsenals,” she said.

This undated photo provided on September 13, 2024, by the North Korean government shows what they say is test-firing from their new launch vehicle of 600mm multiple rockets at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

It could also be meant to influence the US election and send a message to the next administration that denuclearisation is no longer possible and it should recognize North Korea as a nuclear state, said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

North Korea has previously shown photos of what it says were nuclear warheads. It has conducted six underground nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.

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

Kim also oversaw the test launch of a new 600mm multiple-launch rocket system on Thursday and visited an army training base on Wednesday, according to separate KCNA reports.

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