North Korea on Thursday unveiled a new facility to produce fuel for nuclear bombs, as leader Kim Jong-un announced plans to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.”
Read more Angelo Pierattini at the Nescafé de las Artes: an electric celebration of the miracle of life
The state agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) indicated that the facility uses “more sophisticated technology,” but offered no further details, such as its location or when it began operating. Photographs released by state media showed what appeared to be a large centrifuge hall, indicating that the plant is likely used to enrich weapons-grade uranium.
The revelation of the new factory coincides with Kim’s repeated promises to expand North Korea’s nuclear program to counter what he calls growing US-led military threats.
KCNA reported that Kim visited the nuclear facility on Wednesday to learn about its operational indicators and long-term production plan.
According to KCNA, Kim stated that the urgency of strengthening the country’s nuclear deterrence, both in quality and quantity, has increased due to confrontations with “the fiercest enemies,” an apparent reference to the United States and South Korea. Kim also cited other unspecified threats and crises as reasons for strengthening North Korea’s nuclear capability.
Kim asserted that North Korea’s production capacity for weapons-grade nuclear materials has more than doubled compared to five years ago, according to KCNA. However, there are virtually no ways to independently verify that claim.
After a meeting at the facility, Kim said that he and other senior officials “confirmed the order of priority for implementing the ambitious future plan aimed at strengthening our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” KCNA reported.
KCNA photographs showed Kim walking through narrow corridors flanked by dense rows of silver tubes and ducts, in what appeared to be a centrifuge hall. Another image showed him speaking with senior officials in a meeting room, where a blurred graphic representing a cone-shaped object appeared on a table. It was not immediately clear if the graphic showed the design of a warhead.
Read more The United States Senate guarantees full ICE funding in one of Trump’s biggest legislative victories
The revelation of the facility came less than two years after North Korea unveiled another secret uranium enrichment plant in September 2024, in its first public disclosure of such a facility since it showed one at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American academics in 2010.
Kim conveyed a similar message during his visit to that facility in 2024, when he called for increasing the number of centrifuges to “exponentially” expand the country’s nuclear arsenal and urged the development of more advanced centrifugation systems.
Last September, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young stated that North Korea operated a total of 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 facilities to produce both materials at Yongbyon.
North Korea has focused on expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal since high-stakes diplomacy between Kim and US President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Since then, Kim has rejected offers from the United States and South Korea to resume diplomacy.
In April, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi told reporters that his agency had confirmed “a rapid increase” in activities at North Korean nuclear facilities.
Read more The UN warns of “deteriorating humanitarian conditions” in Cuba amid strengthened US blockade
