North Korea: Kim Jong-un Visits Uranium Enrichment Plant

If doubts have been circulating in the world about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, Pyongyang has now dotted all the i’s: the official North Korean news agency KCNA published photos of its uranium enrichment plants for the first time on Friday, September 13, on the occasion of Kim Jong-un’s visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute, during which the North Korean leader asked to “radically strengthen the country’s fissile enrichment capabilities.”

Pyongyang first conducted a nuclear test in 2006 and has since made significant strides both in producing enriched uranium for use in nuclear warheads and in developing and manufacturing ballistic missiles that Kim Jong-un says are capable of reaching not only South Korea, but also Japan and even the USA.

It was on the day of Kim Jong-un’s “historic visit” that Taiwan protested North Korea’s new ballistic missile launch toward the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang launched two missiles from a site along its west coast, according to information also provided by the Japanese government. The missiles covered a distance of 350 kilometers and reached an altitude of 100 kilometers. North Korea has not launched a missile since July 1.

North Korea faces numerous UN sanctions for its military nuclear program and has never publicly displayed the facilities until now. High-speed centrifuges are used to produce the highly enriched uranium needed to make nuclear warheads. During the visit, the North Korean leader called for accelerating the production of fissile material for tactical nuclear weapons, reiterating their importance as a deterrent against the USa and its allies and as a tool “for self-defense but also for preventive attack.”