North Korea reveals new Uranium enrichment facility to 'exponentially' expand nuclear arsenal

North Korea in a public disclosure unveiled a uranium enrichment facility capable of producing weapons-grade material. State media on Friday reported that Kim Jong Un recently visited the facility, urging increased efforts to "exponentially" grow North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
Though the exact location of the site remains unclear, it could be connected to the country's main Yongbyon nuclear complex, marking the first time North Korea has revealed such a facility since 2010.
During his visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and a facility for producing weapons-grade nuclear materials, Kim expressed "great satisfaction repeatedly over the wonderful technical force of the nuclear power field" possessed by North Korea, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Kim toured the control room of the uranium enrichment site and inspected a construction area intended to boost production capacity. Photographs released by North Korean media show Kim receiving a briefing from scientists while walking past long rows of grey tubes. However, KCNA did not specify when or where this visit took place.
The North Korean leader stressed the importance of expanding the number of centrifuges to "exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense," a goal he has highlighted in the past. He also instructed officials to expedite the development of a new type of centrifuge, which he said is nearing completion.
Kim linked the need for stronger defence and pre-emptive attack capabilities to what he described as escalating threats from the US and its allies. "Anti-(North Korea) nuclear threats perpetrated by the US imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the red-line," he was quoted as saying by KCNA.
The last time North Korea publicly showed a uranium enrichment facility was in 2010 when it allowed a group of American scholars, led by Stanford University nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker, to tour Yongbyon. North Korean officials reportedly told Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were operational at that time.
Satellite imagery in recent years has suggested an expansion of the uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon, which is capable of producing both highly enriched uranium and plutonium, key materials for nuclear weapons. The exact quantity of weapons-grade material produced or stored in North Korea remains unclear.
Ankit Panda, a nuclear expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted the significance of the latest revelations. "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," Panda said. He cautioned against underestimating North Korea's capacity to increase its production of highly enriched uranium, which is easier to scale up than plutonium.
In 2018, Hecker and other Stanford researchers estimated that North Korea’s inventory of highly enriched uranium ranged from 250 to 500 kilograms, enough for 25 to 30 nuclear devices.
Some experts in the US and South Korea believe North Korea could be operating at least one more covert uranium-enrichment facility. A South Korean official told parliament in 2018 that North Korea was estimated to have manufactured as many as 60 nuclear weapons at that time. Estimates of how many additional nuclear bombs North Korea could produce each year range from six to 18.
Since 2022, North Korea has significantly ramped up its missile testing programme, aiming to modernise and expand its arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons. Analysts predict that North Korea may conduct nuclear or long-range missile tests in the run-up to the US presidential election in November, potentially to influence US policy or gain leverage in future negotiations.
North Korea on Thursday conducted test-launches of several short-range ballistic missiles. KCNA reported that Kim supervised the firing of nuclear-capable 600mm multiple rockets to evaluate their new launch vehicles.