NKorea's Kim calls for boosting nuclear might

NKorea's Kim calls for boosting nuclear might
by AFP Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Sept 12, 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a nuclear facility and called for boosting the country's nuclear capabilities in the face of growing threats from Washington and its allies, state media reported Friday.

The report comes a day after North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into waters east of the Korean peninsula, Seoul's military said, the nuclear-armed country's first major weapons test since early July.

Kim inspected the Nuclear Weapons Institute and a production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials, the government news agency KCNA reported.

As he toured the facility, Kim "encouraged the nuclear scientists faithful to the Party to unconditionally implement the Party's policy of building up nuclear force without an inch of deflection with their strong faith and high practical ability," KCNA said.

Noting that nuclear threats from the United States and its allies "have become more undisguised and crossed the red line," Kim said North Korea must "steadily expand and bolster up its defence capability... and the capability for a preemptive attack with the nuclear force as a pivot."

Kim's regime has staged dozens of launches this year, part of a testing spree experts say could be linked to North Korea's alleged illicit supplying of weapons to ally Russia for use in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has denied any sanctions-busting weapons trade with Russia, but with diplomacy long stalled, it declared South Korea its "principal enemy" this year and recently moved nuclear-capable weapons to border areas.

Seoul's Joint Chief of Staff said it had detected multiple "short-range ballistic missiles" fired early Thursday from Pyongyang into the East Sea, or Sea of Japan.

The missiles splashed down after flying around 360 kilometres (220 miles), the JCS said, adding it had "immediately detected, tracked, and monitored" the launch and was sharing information with allies Tokyo and Washington.

It said the test was "a clear provocation that seriously threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula".

Japan's defence ministry also confirmed the missile test.

In an apparent reference to that test, KCNA reported Friday that Kim "oversaw the test-fire for verifying the performance of a new-type 600mm multiple rocket launcher."

The shells "hit the target on an island in the East Sea," according to KCNA.

"The test was conducted, aiming at further developing the launcher's driving system and verifying the combat effectiveness of the launcher in which the whole process of firepower is fully automated," it added.

North Korea releases images of uranium enrichment facility for first time
Seoul (AFP) Sept 13, 2024 - North Korea released images of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time on Friday, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring it as he called for more centrifuges to boost his nuclear arsenal.

The country, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is under rafts of UN sanctions for its banned weapons programmes, has never publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facility.

Such facilities produce highly enriched uranium -- which is needed to produce nuclear warheads -- by spinning the original material in centrifuges at high speeds.

Kim toured the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the "production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials," the official Korean Central News Agency reported, without giving the location of the facility or the date of the visit.

Kim "stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defence," state media reported, publishing images of Kim inspecting rows of centrifuges.

Kim "acquainted himself with the production of nuclear warheads and current nuclear materials," the report said.

The North Korean leader was briefed about the facility "dynamically producing nuclear materials by studying, developing and introducing all the system elements including centrifugal separators," KCNA said.

Kim urged the facility to "push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge... so as to further strengthen the foundation for producing weapon-grade nuclear materials".

Kim also "stressed the need to set a higher long-term goal in producing nuclear materials necessary", added KCNA.

North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes are banned by UN sanctions, but the country has long flouted the restrictions, thanks in part to support from allies Russia and China.

- Message for US? -

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

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

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

It is unlikely that the disclosure will be quickly followed by another nuclear test, he said.

Pyongyang last month said a record downpour in late July had killed an unspecified number of people, flooded dwellings and submerged swathes of farmland in its northern regions near China.

38 North, a North Korean analysis programme run by the Stimson Centre think-tank, reported on Wednesday that North Korea's main nuclear test site had been damaged by floodwaters.

North Korea's main nuclear test site "is in very bad condition. All roads and railways have been lost due to rain damage, and the ground is very weakened," Hong added.

Relations between North and South Korea are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North recently announcing the deployment of 250 ballistic missile launchers to its southern border.

The North has also been bombarding the South with trash-carrying balloons, including a five-day straight blitz last week.

On Thursday, Seoul said the North had fired multiple short range ballistic missiles into waters east of the Korean peninsula.

But KCNA said in a separate dispatch Friday that this had been a test of a "new-type 600mm multiple rocket launcher" which was overseen by Kim.