Inside Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapon factory: First-ever images of North Korea’s uranium enrichment plant revealed as dictator visits military facilities and urges increase in tactical nuke production

North Korea has unveiled to the world the first-ever glimpse into a facility producing weapons-grade uranium as Kim Jong Un ordered his scientists and military officials to ‘exponentially’ increase the number of nuclear weapons at his disposal. 

A selection of state media photos showed Kim clad in all-black being briefed by scientists and a pair of military men while walking through long lines of tall grey tubes.

The Korean Central News Agency didn’t say when Kim visited the facilities and where they are located.

But it is the Hermit Kingdom’s first disclosure of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at Yongbyon to visiting American scholars in 2010 – and the first time it has ever published pictures to the world.  

While the latest unveiling is likely an attempt to apply more pressure on the US and its allies, the images could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced.

Experts also said the sudden public disclosure of the North’s uranium enrichment facility could be intended to impact the US presidential election in November.

A selection of state media photos showed Kim clad in all-black being briefed by scientists and a pair of military men while walking along long lines of tall grey tubes

KCNA didn’t say when Kim visited the facilities and where they are located

The images could provide outsiders with a valuable source of information for estimating the amount of nuclear ingredients that North Korea has produced

A new 600mm multiple rocket launcher is test-fired at an undisclosed location in North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un aims a weapon as he visits the training base of the special operations armed force of North Korea’s army at an undisclosed location in North Korea

A new 600mm multiple rocket launcher is pictured during a test-fire at an undisclosed location in North Korea, in this photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency September 13, 2024

The images are ‘a message to the next administration that it will be impossible to denuclearise North Korea’, according to Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

‘It is also a message demanding other countries to acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state,’ he added. 

Other analysts say North Korea could perform nuclear test explosions or long-range missile tests ahead of the US presidential election with the intent to influence the outcome and increase its leverage in future dealings with the Americans.

‘Overall, the message they are trying to send is that their nuclear capability is not just an empty threat, but that they are continuing to produce (bomb fuel),’ Yang said.

‘And who are they speaking to? It could obviously be South Korea but also certainly the United States.’

During his visit to the uranium enrichment plant, Kim expressed ‘great satisfaction over the wonderful technical force of the nuclear power field’ held by North Korea, the KCNA reported.

KCNA said that Kim went around the control room of the uranium enrichment base and a construction site that would expand its capacity for producing nuclear weapons. 

Kim also stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges to ‘exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defence,’ a goal he has repeatedly stated in recent years. 

North Korea needs greater defence and preemptive attack capabilities because ‘anti-(North Korea) nuclear threats perpetrated by the US imperialists-led vassal forces have become more undisguised and crossed the red-line,’ KCNA said.

Kim in recent days also observed and supervised test-firing of nuclear-capable 600mm multiple rockets to examine the performance of their new launch vehicles.

He also visited the training base of a special operations group, with images showing the pariah state’s leader firing assault and sniper rifles while watching bare chested operatives engage in high-octane training. 

This photo taken on September 11, 2024 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on September 13, 2024 shows North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (C) inspecting the training base of the special operation armed forces of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) at an undisclosed location in North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un aims a weapon as he visits a training base

North Korean soldiers are seen smashing through concrete blocks in demonstration to Kim and high ranking officials

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversees a test-fire for a new 600mm multiple rocket launcher at an undisclosed location in North Korea

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it strongly condemned North Korea’s unveiling of a uranium enrichment facility and Kim’s vows to boost his country’s nuclear capability.

A ministry statement said North Korea’s ‘illegal’ pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of UN bans is a serious threat to international peace. It said North Korea must realise it cannot win anything with its nuclear program.

North Korea first showed a uranium enrichment site in Yongbyon to the outside world in November 2010, when it allowed a visiting delegation of Stanford University scholars led by nuclear physicist, Siegfried Hecker, to tour its centrifuges.

North Korean officials then reportedly told Hecker that 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running at Yongbyon.

Satellite images in recent years have indicated North Korea was expanding a uranium enrichment plant at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. 

Nuclear weapons can be built using either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce both at Yongbyon. 

It’s not clear exactly how much weapons-grade plutonium or highly enriched uranium has been produced at Yongbyon and where North Korea stores it.

‘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,’ said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

‘Overall, we should not assume that North Korea will be as constrained as it once was by fissile material limitations. This is especially true for highly enriched uranium, where North Korea is significantly less constrained in its ability to scale up than it is with plutonium,’ Panda said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the training base of the special operations armed force of North Korea’s army

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the training base of the special operations armed force of North Korea’s army

Kim watches on as North Korean soldiers perform training drills

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (centre R) inspecting the training base of the special operation armed forces of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) at an undisclosed location in North Korea

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on September 12, 2024

In 2018, Hecker and Stanford University scholars estimated North Korea’s highly enriched uranium inventory was 250 to 500 kilos (550 to 1,100 pounds), sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices.

The North Korean photos released Friday showed about 1,000 centrifuges. When operated year-round, they would be able to produce around 20 to 25 kilos (44 to 55 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, which would be enough to create a single bomb, according to Yang Uk, a security expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

The new-type centrifuge Kim wants to introduce is likely an advanced carbon fibre-based one that could allow North Korea to produce five to 10 times more highly enriched uranium than its existing ones, said Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.

Some US and South Korean experts speculate North Korea is covertly running at least one other uranium enrichment plant. In 2018, a top South Korean official told parliament that North Korea was estimated to have already manufactured up to 60 nuclear weapons. 

Estimates on how many nuclear bombs North Korea can add every year vary, ranging from six to as many as 18.

Since 2022, North Korea has sharply ramped up weapons testing activities to expand and modernise its arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the US and South Korea.