North Korea reveals first photos of secret uranium enrichment facility

Photos released by the official KCNA news agency on September 13 showed Kim Jong Un walking around the control room of a uranium enrichment facility and a construction site that is expected to expand nuclear weapons production capacity, listening to scientists as he walked along rows of tall gray pipes.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and weapons-grade nuclear material production facility at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Photo: KCNA

The photos show about 1,000 centrifuges. When operating year-round, they can produce about 20 to 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, enough to make one bomb, according to Yang Uk, a security expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

KCNA said Kim Jong Un had ordered officials to push ahead with the introduction of a new type of centrifuge, which has now reached a stage of completion. He has repeatedly expressed “great satisfaction with the great technical prowess of the nuclear power sector” that North Korea possesses.

Mr. Kim urged workers to produce more material for tactical nuclear weapons, saying the country’s nuclear arsenal was vital to countering threats. He said the weapons were necessary for “self-defense and preemptive strike capabilities.”

Kim Jong Un takes aim during a visit to a special forces training base of the North Korean army on September 11. Photo: KCNA

Lee Sang-kyu, a nuclear engineering expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the centrifuges in the photos appeared to be smaller and shorter than those previously believed to be used by North Korea, suggesting the country had developed its own centrifuges to enhance its separation capabilities.

He added that the photos also confirmed that North Korea was using a cascade system, in which multiple centrifuges are linked together to produce highly enriched uranium.

Kim Jong Un visits a training base of the North Korean army's special forces to direct a combat drill, September 11. Photo: KCNA

Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the new centrifuges showed North Korea was improving its fuel cycle capabilities.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said it strongly condemned North Korea's announcement of a uranium enrichment facility, as well as Kim Jong Un's pledge to strengthen the country's nuclear capabilities.

North Korea first publicly disclosed a uranium enrichment site at Yongbyon in November 2010, when it allowed a delegation of Stanford University scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to tour the centrifuges. North Korean officials reportedly later told Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were installed and operating at Yongbyon.

Satellite imagery in recent years has shown that North Korea is expanding a uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Nuclear weapons can be made with highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce both at Yongbyon.

Hoai Phuong (according to KCNA, Reuters, AP)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/trieu-tien-he-lo-nhung-buc-anh-dau-tien-ve-co-so-lam-giau-uranium-bi-mat-post312226.html