North Korea gets rare sight of uranium enrichment site during Kim Jong Un’s visit | Wilnesh News

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a uranium enrichment facility and called for the installation of new centrifuges to produce more weapons-grade material for nuclear bombs, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday.

Reports of Kim’s visit to a nuclear weapons research institute and weapons-grade nuclear materials production site were accompanied by photos that provided a rare glimpse into North Korea’s nuclear program, which is banned by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Photos show Kim Jong-un walking between a long row of metal centrifuges, the machines that enrich uranium. The report did not indicate when the visit occurred or the location of the facility.

Kim Jong Un has 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.

He said the weapons were for “self-defense and pre-emptive attack capabilities.”

According to the report, the North Korean leader said that the “anti-North Korean nuclear threat” from “vassal forces led by US imperialism” has crossed a red line.

North Korea is believed to have multiple uranium enrichment sites. Analysts say commercial satellite images show construction underway in recent years at the Yongbyon Nuclear Science Research Center, including its uranium enrichment plant, suggesting a possible expansion.

Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element. To make nuclear fuel, raw uranium is processed to produce material with an increased concentration of the isotope uranium-235.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday that activities observed by the U.N. nuclear watchdog were consistent with operations at the Yongbyon reactor and reported centrifuge enrichment facilities.

Kim stressed the need to increase the number of centrifuges to “double” nuclear weapons and expand the use of new centrifuges to further strengthen the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials.

Anjit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the new centrifuges show North Korea is improving its fuel cycle capabilities.

“Kim also seemed to suggest that the design of North Korea’s tactical nuclear weapons may rely heavily on uranium as the core,” he said.

Panda said this was noteworthy because North Korea is more capable of expanding its stockpile of highly enriched uranium than the more complex process of manufacturing plutonium.

Estimates of the number of North Korean nuclear weapons vary widely. A July report by the Federation of American Scientists concluded that the country may have produced enough fissile material to build as many as 90 nuclear warheads, but that the number assembled could be closer to 50.

Kim Jong Un also oversaw the test-firing of a new 600mm multiple launch rocket system on Thursday and inspected a training base for the North Korean army’s special operations forces to guide combatant exercises on Wednesday, KCNA reported.

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry Research Institute criticized the recent defense ministers’ meeting of the U.S.-led United Nations Command member states in Seoul, calling it a “war organization.”

Germany joined the command last month, becoming the 18th country in the group that helps maintain its heavily fortified border with North Korea and has pledged to defend South Korea in the event of war.