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NKorea Gives Glimpse of Nuke Facility 09/13 06:06
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea offered a rare glimpse into a
secretive facility to produce weapons-grade uranium as state media reported
Friday that leader Kim Jong Un visited the area and called for stronger efforts
to "exponentially" increase its number of nuclear weapons.
It's unclear whether the site is at North Korea's main Yongbyon nuclear
complex, but it's the North's first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility
since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010. While
the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the U.S.
and its allies, the images released by North Korean media of the area could
provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the
amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.
During a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the facility producing
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 reported.
KCNA said Kim went around the control room of the uranium enrichment
facility 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 centrifuges. KCNA didn't say when
Kim visited the facilities or where they are located.
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 of centrifuge.
Kim said North Korea needs greater defense and preemptive attack
capabilities because "anti-(North Korea) nuclear threats perpetrated by the
U.S. imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed
the red line," KCNA said.
South Korea's Unification Ministry strongly condemned North Korea's push to
boost its nuclear capability. A ministry statement said North Korea's "illegal"
pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. prohibitions is a serious threat
to international peace. It said North Korea must realize it cannot win anything
with its nuclear program.
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 scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to tour
its centrifuges. North Korean officials then reportedly told Hecker that 2,000
centrifuges were installed and running at Yongbyon.
Satellite images in recent years have indicated North Korea was expanding a
uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon. Nuclear weapons can be built using either
highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce
both at Yongbyon. Some U.S. and South Korean experts believe North Korea is
covertly running at least one other uranium-enrichment plant.
It's not clear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched
uranium have been produced at Yongbyon and elsewhere. In 2018, a top South
Korean official told parliament that North Korea was estimated to have already
manufactured 20-60 nuclear weapons, but some experts say the North likely has
more than 100. Estimates of how many nuclear bombs North Korea can add every
year vary, ranging from six to as many as 18.
"For analysts outside the country, the released images will provide a
valuable source of information for rectifying our assumptions about how much
material North Korea may have amassed to date," said Ankit Panda, an expert
with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"Overall, we should not assume that North Korea will be as constrained as it
once was by fissile material limitations. This is especially true for highly
enriched uranium, where North Korea is significantly less constrained in its
ability to scale up than it is with plutonium," Panda said.
In 2018, Hecker and Stanford University scholars estimated North Korea's
highly enriched uranium inventory was 250 to 500 kilograms (550 to 1,100
pounds), sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices.
The North Korean photos released Friday showed about 1,000 centrifuges. When
operated year-round, they would be able to produce around 20 to 25 kilograms
(44 to 55 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, which would be enough to create a
single bomb, according to Yang Uk, a security expert at Seoul's Asan Institute
for Policy Studies.
The new-type centrifuge Kim wants to introduce is likely an advanced carbon
fiber-based one that could allow North Korea to produce five to 10 times more
highly enriched uranium than its existing ones, said Lee Choon Geun, an
honorary research fellow at South Korea's Science and Technology Policy
Institute.
Since 2022, North Korea has sharply ramped up its weapons testing activities
to expand and modernize its arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the U.S. and
South Korea. Analysts say North Korea could conduct a nuclear test explosion or
long-range missile test ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November
with the intent of influencing the outcome and increasing its leverage in
future dealings with the Americans.
"Overall, the message they are trying to send is that their nuclear
capability is not just an empty threat, but that they are continuing to produce
(bomb fuel)," Yang said. "And who are they speaking to? It could obviously be
South Korea but also certainly the U.S."
Kim's recent nuclear drive comes as North Korea is deepening its military
cooperation with Russia. The U.S. and South Korea have accused North Korea of
supplying badly needed conventional arms to support Russia's war in Ukraine in
return for military and economic aid.
On Friday, a Russian delegation led by the country's Security Council
secretary, Sergei Shoigu, traveled to North Korea and met Kim for talks on
bilateral and international issues, Russian media reported. In July 2023,
Shoigu, then defense minister, visited North Korea and met Kim.
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