According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), North Korea has recently completed construction of a new two-story uranium enrichment facility at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. A second site at Yongbyon, the Kangson enrichment facility, has recently had an expanded annex brought online. The director general of the IAEA described the findings as "serious concern." The new building at Yongbyon is designed to house up to 28 centrifuge cascades for enrichment of uranium.
Satellite images of the Yongbyon site that the IAEA used for its assessment were taken between May 7 and August 7 of this year, the IAEA said. The watchdog agency has not been allowed to conduct on-site inspections of any North Korean facilities since 2009. Its assessment, therefore, is of expansion of facilities at a number of North Korean sites, not merely the Yongbyon complex.
A second facility at Kangson, which is located near the capital city of Pyongyang and has been a point of contention in past denuclearization talks, also appears to have an expanded annex to enrich uranium, which the IAEA believes may be a separate enrichment track that has not been previously detected because it is located outside of the Yongbyon compound.
The IAEA report comes at a particularly strategic time, given that the U.S. and Israel are waging war on Iran's nuclear capability. With Washington distracted by battling Iran's nuclear ambitions, Kim appears to be continuing to accelerate development of his own nuclear arsenal, appraising the new balance of power and the vector of U.S. action.
North Korea has not responded to the IAEA report yet. As a rule, Pyongyang does not react to Western nuclear watchdog reports. Most of all, it does not return to IAEA's inspection protocols, which were halted in 2009. In the meantime, the Kim regime has put its leader's position beyond doubt by rewriting the rules for the country's two ruling parties. The new version still leaves room for negotiations with Washington, however. The typical tactics used by North Korea in its dealings with the US are on full display.
North Korea has fired short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area in recent days, just after the US and its allies in Japan and South Korea concluded their Freedom Edge trilateral exercises. Kim Jong Un is likely monitoring the situation and judging how the US and its regional allies respond to new enrichment infrastructure, and continued missile launches. For now, Pyongyang is continuing to build up its nuclear arsenal while Washington remains in the dark about how to formally address the situation.
