WASHINGTON: Satellite images showed a high level of bustle at North Korea’s main nuclear site, a US think tank claimed on Saturday after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered an increase in production of bomb fuel to expand the country’s nuclear stockpile.
The Washington-based 38 North Korea monitoring project said that the activity it had spotted based on satellite images from March 3 and March 17 indicated that an Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR) at the Yongbyon site was close to completion and transition to operational status.
The satellite images showed that a five megawatts reactor at Yongbyon continued to function and that construction had begun on a support building around the ELWR. Further, water discharges had been noticed from that reactor’s cooling system. New construction had also begun around Yongbyon’s uranium enrichment plant, likely to enhance its capabilities.
The report while referring to the Northern Korean leader said that the developments seemed to reflect Kim Jong Un’s recent directive to expand the country’s fissile material production to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile.
Earlier, North Korea revealed new, smaller nuclear warheads and promised to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to increase its arsenal, while denouncing stepped up military exercises by the United States and South Korea.
North Korean state media said that Kim Jong Un had ordered the manufacture of weapons-grade materials in a “far-sighted way” to lift the country’s nuclear arsenal “exponentially.”
It was unclear whether North Korea had fully developed miniaturised nuclear warheads needed to fit on smaller weapons it displayed earlier.
South Korea and the United States repeatedly warned since early 2022 that North Korea might resume nuclear testing at any time.
