South Korea says the North has 4 uranium enrichment facilities to build nuclear weapons
By Hyung-Jin Kim
Seoul, South Korea (AP) – A senior South Korean official said Thursday that North Korea operates a total of four uranium enrichment facilities, adding to external assessments that it has several secret atomic factories as well as the site widely known near the capital of Pyongyang.
Northern chief Kim Jong Un, called for a rapid expansion of his country’s nuclear weapons program and recently said that he would never make a negotiation point in response to the openings of US President Donald Trump.
The Minister of South Unification, Chung Dong -Young, said that centrifuges of uranium enrichment in the four installations – which would include the known site of Yongbyon, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Pyongyang – operate every day and highlight the emergency to stop the nuclear program of the North.
Chung has not further developed on the location of other unconceived nuclear sites. He spoke of the north with local journalists, according to his ministry.
A nuclear stock
Chung cited an evaluation that the North has 2,000 kilograms (approximately 4,400 pounds) of highly enriched uranium. He first declared that it was based on information, but the ministry later said that it was awarded to civilian experts.
If confirmed, the amount would also point out a sharp increase in the stock of nuclear materials in North Korea.
In 2018, researchers from the University of Stanford, including the nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker, who had already visited the Yongbyon complex, said that the North had about 250 to 500 kilograms (550 to 1,100 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, sufficient for 25 to 30 nuclear devices.
Nuclear weapons can be built using highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has installations to produce both Yongbyon. Last year, North Korea published photographs of what it said was an establishment to enrich uranium, the first disclosure of this type since it showed that of Yongbyon in Hecker and others in 2010.
The location and other details of the installation on the photographs remain unknown.
Foreign experts believe that North Korea has built additional uranium writing sites while Kim has grown hard to extend its nuclear arsenal.
A plutonium factory is generally large and generates a lot of heat, which facilitates the detection of foreigners than a uranium enrichment plant, which is more compact and can be easily hidden from satellite cameras. Centrifuges to enrich uranium can be exploited underground.
Northern atomic bombs
It is almost impossible to independently confirm the number of nuclear weapons that North Korea has manufactured, on the basis of nuclear fissile materials which it produced in Yongbyon and elsewhere.
In 2018, a senior South Korean official told Parliament that North Korea has already made 20 to 60 nuclear weapons, but some experts say that the North probably has more than 100. Estimates from the number of nuclear bombs in North Korea can add to its arsenal each year, ranging from six to 18 years.
International diplomacy at the end of the North Korea nuclear program has been in neutral since 2019, when the top of the issues raised between Kim and Trump collapsed without any agreement.
At the time, Kim proposed to dismantle the Yongbyon complex if he took relief from in -depth sanctions. But the American part rejected its proposal, because it would be a limited denuclearization stage which would leave the other nuclear and nuclear weapons already built of North Korea.
Kim has since avoided any diplomacy with the United States and South Korea and has focused on managing arms tests and the improvement of nuclear missiles that target its rivals.
Since his return to functions, Trump has repeatedly expressed hopes to restart the talks with Kim. Earlier this week, Kim said he always had good memories of Trump, but urged the United States to abandon his request that the North abandons his nuclear weapons as a prerequisite for the resumption of long-term diplomacy.
Analysts evaluate that Kim would probably perceive an extended nuclear arsenal as a source of greater leverage in potential talks with the United States
They say that in all potential negotiations, Kim would again seek to gain scanning alleviations and improved links with the United States in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear and missile programs.
