North Korea unveils another nuclear plant

SEOUL, South Korea —

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea unveiled a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels on Thursday, with leader Kim Jong Un announcing plans to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.”

The official Korean Central News Agency revealed that the facility utilized “more sophisticated technology,” but did not provide further details regarding its location or the commencement of its operations. State media images depicted a large centrifuge hall, suggesting that the plant is likely used for enriching weapons-grade uranium.

This disclosure aligns with Kim’s consistent promises to expand North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in response to what he perceives as escalating U.S.-led military threats.

Kim visited the nuclear facility on Wednesday, as reported by KCNA, to understand its operational metrics and long-term production strategy.

According to KCNA, Kim emphasized the urgency of enhancing the country’s nuclear war deterrent, both in terms of quality and quantity, due to confrontations with “the most ferocious enemies,” likely referring to the United States and South Korea. Kim also cited other unspecified threats and crises as reasons to bolster North Korea’s nuclear capability.

Kim claimed that North Korea’s production capacity for weapons-grade nuclear materials has more than doubled in the past five years, as reported by KCNA. However, there are limited means to independently verify his assertion.

Following a meeting at the facility, Kim and other top officials reportedly “confirmed the order of priority for implementing the ambitious future plan designed to strengthen our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” according to KCNA.

Photos from KCNA showed Kim navigating narrow aisles lined with dense rows of silver tubes and pipes in what appeared to be a centrifuge hall. Another image depicted him conversing with senior officials in a meeting room, with a blurred graphic of a cone-shaped object spread across a table. The nature of the graphic, whether it represented a warhead design, was not immediately clear.

The revelation of the facility comes less than two years after North Korea disclosed another covert uranium-enrichment plant in September 2024, marking the first public acknowledgment of such a facility since revealing one at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to American scholars in 2010.

During his visit to that facility in 2024, Kim emphasized the need to increase the number of centrifuges to exponentially expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and promote the development of more advanced centrifuge systems.

Last September, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young stated that North Korea was operating a total of four uranium enrichment facilities, including the Yongbyon complex, which were operational on a daily basis.

Nuclear weapons can be constructed using highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea possesses facilities for both at Yongbyon.

Since the breakdown of Kim’s diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019, North Korea has focused on expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal. Kim has rejected offers from the U.S. and South Korea to restart diplomatic negotiations.

In April, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi informed reporters that the agency had confirmed “a rapid increase” in activities at North Korea’s nuclear facilities.