(Seoul) North Korea released images of its uranium enrichment facilities for the first time Friday, during a visit by Kim Jong-un who called for a boost to the country’s nuclear capabilities.
Pyongyang, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is subject to numerous United Nations sanctions over its banned weapons programs, has never publicly displayed these facilities.
These produce highly enriched uranium, needed for the manufacture of nuclear warheads, using high-speed centrifuges.
PHOTO KCNA, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
The North Korean leader “stressed the need to further increase the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase self-defense nuclear weapons,” state media reported.
Mr Kim visited the nuclear weapons institute and a nuclear weapons materials production base, the official KCNA news agency said, without specifying where the facilities were located or when the visit took place.
The North Korean leader “stressed the need to further increase the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase self-defense nuclear weapons,” the agency reported, releasing footage of Kim Jong-un inspecting rows of centrifuges.
Mr. Kim “has become familiar with the production of nuclear warheads” and nuclear materials, the agency said.
The leader urged to “promote the introduction of a new type of centrifuge […] in order to strengthen the foundations for producing nuclear materials for military use.”
Mr Kim also called for “setting a higher long-term target for the production of necessary nuclear materials,” KCNA added.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs are under UN sanctions, but the country ignores these restrictions, thanks in part to the support of its allies Russia and China.
Likely message to the United States
According to experts, the release of images of uranium enrichment facilities could be aimed at influencing the US presidential election in November.
The images are “a message to the next administration” that “it will be impossible to denuclearize North Korea,” Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.
“It is also a message asking other countries to recognize North Korea as a nuclear state,” he added.
However, it is unlikely that this spotlight will be quickly followed by a new nuclear test, the analyst estimated.
North Korea’s main nuclear test site was damaged by flooding following heavy rains in late July, according to reports released Wednesday by 38 North, a North Korea analysis program run by the Stimson Center think tank.
This site “is in very poor condition.” “All the roads and railways have been destroyed by the rains and the ground is very fragile,” Mr. Hong also believes.
Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang are at an all-time low, and the North recently announced the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers to its southern border.
North Korea has been releasing large quantities of garbage-laden balloons in recent months, with another batch released last week.
On Thursday, Seoul announced that North Korea had fired several “short-range ballistic missiles” toward the sea, its first major weapons test since early July.
But the KCNA news agency said on Friday that it was a test of a “new type of 600mm multiple rocket launcher.”