North Korean propaganda on Friday published its uranium enrichment facilities for the first time, reporting a visit by leader Kim Jong-un to the National Institute for Nuclear Weapons Research. On that occasion, The marshal called for building more centrifuges to increase the country’s atomic arsenal.
The images shared by the KCNA agency show Kim visiting a plant for producing fissile materials for bombs, without specifying the date and location of the facilities, accompanied by Hong Sung Muone of the main players in North Korea’s nuclear program, and visiting a room in which a cascade of gas centrifuges can be seen.
During the visit, Kim “stressed the need to further increase the number of centrifuges to exponentially increase the number of self-defense nuclear weapons in line with the Party’s guidelines to develop nuclear forces,” KCNA said. Kim, who entered the facility’s control room and was briefed on its operation, “expressed great satisfaction after being informed that the current production of nuclear materials (for bombs) is constantly expanding” thanks to the use and development of North Korean technology.
The dictator ordered to further improve the separation capacity of centrifuges and promote the introduction of a new type of centrifuge, the development of which is in its final stage, KCNA said. And he once again stressed that the current security landscape of his country poses a “threat” and that this requires an improvement of nuclear capabilities in defensive terms. And to launch preemptive attacks.
So far, the North Korean regime It has never publicly shown any of its facilities for obtaining uranium 235.although it has allowed figures such as the American scientist Siegfried Hecker visited early last decade a facility at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center (about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang), which contained some 2,000 gas centrifuges.
Missile launch
North Korean media also released reports today about two other military activities by Kim. For one, KCNA reported that the leader on Thursday oversaw the test launch, detected by Seoul and Tokyo, of several tactical missiles of the system known as KN-25.
The test aimed to test the new control system of the mobile erector launcher (TEL) and to verify, through missile salvos, the operational effectiveness of the firing system, which, according to KCNA, is fully automated.
In turn, the North Korean marshal on Wednesday visited a base of a special forces unit of the army and witnessed their extreme physical training, shooting practices (Kim himself held in his hands new models of assault or sniper rifles) and infiltration exercises that included the participation of the paratrooper brigades.
These last two activities They seem to be sending a specific message to the Southwhich Kim declared earlier this year as the main national enemy.
In turn, it is believed that the publication of the leader’s visit to the facilities for the production of fissile materials for atomic bombs seeks to boast of the regime’s nuclear capabilities, just over seven weeks before the presidential elections in the United States.
Seoul and Washington have warned that Pyongyang could soon decide to conduct extensive tests of weapons of mass destruction, such as a nuclear test or the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), in order to underscore the positions of the regime – which has refused invitations to dialogue since 2019 – for whoever is elected next president of the United States.
