North Korea on Thursday unveiled a new nuclear fuel production facility, and leader Kim Jong Un announced plans to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces “at an increasing rate.”
The official Korean Central News Agency said the facility uses “advanced technology” but did not provide further details, such as where it is located or when it will start operating. State media images showed what appeared to be a large centrifuge hall, indicating that the facility may have been used to enrich weapons-grade uranium.
The unveiling of the new factory coincides with Kim’s repeated vows to expand his factory nuclear weapons program to deal with what he called increasing military threats led by the US.
KCNA said Kim visited the nuclear facility on Wednesday to learn about its performance indicators and its long-term production plan.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying that the urgency of strengthening the country’s nuclear deterrent, both qualitatively and quantitatively, has grown due to confrontation with “very fierce enemies,” apparently referring to the United States and South Korea. Kim cited other threats and tensions that remain unclear, such as the need to develop North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, he said.
Kim said North Korea’s nuclear weapons production capacity has doubled compared to five years ago, according to KCNA. There is almost no way to independently verify his claim.
After the meeting at the facility, Kim said he and other senior officials “confirmed the order to start the implementation of the bright future plan designed to strengthen our country’s nuclear forces on a large scale,” KCNA said.
KCNA footage showed Kim walking through small rooms lined with dense rows of silver tubes and pipes, in what appeared to be a centrifuge hall. Another photo showed him talking to senior officials in a conference room, where a blurry photo of a cone-shaped object was spread across the table. It was not immediately clear whether the image showed a warhead design.
The unveiling of the center took place less than two years after North Korea revealed another uranium enrichment site in September 2024, in the first public disclosure of such a facility since it was shown at Yongbyon’s main nuclear facility to visiting American scientists in 2010.
Kim delivered a similar message during a visit to the facility in 2024, calling for an increase in the number of centrifuges to “expand” the country’s nuclear arsenal and urging the development of more advanced centrifuge systems.
Last September, South Korea’s Unification Minister, Chung Dong-young, said that North Korea was operating four uranium enrichment facilities, including the Yongbyon complex, and that they were operating every day.
Nuclear weapons can be built using highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has production facilities for both at Yongbyon.
North Korea focused on expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal since Kim’s high-profile talks with President Trump in 2019. Kim has even rejected promises from the US and South Korea to resume diplomacy.
In April, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, told reporters that his agency had confirmed a “rapid increase” in activities at North Korea’s nuclear facilities.
In March, the US Treasury Department penalties imposed to six people and two companies accused of helping North Korea in the program there remote IT staff they were used to defraud businesses and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs.
US officials have estimated that the program will bring in about $800 million in 2024 alone.
Earlier that month, North Korean state media broadcast images that showed Kim inspecting the naval destroyer and its weapons systems, saying he aims to build “the most powerful navy” in the country’s history.
Experts speculate that the purpose of these images may have been to show North Korea’s power just days after the US launched its attack on Iran.
