State media has reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a weapons-grade uranium enrichment plant, releasing images of the facility and revealing its existence to the global public for the first time. The reports did not reveal the location of the plant or its production capacity. (New York Times)
Our Take
The release of the photos will provide foreign intelligence agencies as well as open-source sleuths with a wealth of information to better determine North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, which makes it important from a global security perspective. But at the same time, the existence of a facility like this isn’t news: The world has known for almost 15 years that, in addition to a plutonium enrichment program, North Korea operates a parallel program for uranium enrichment.
But the decision to reveal this information publicly, with images, for the first time is notable, as is the timing of that decision. Unlike North Korea’s recent round of “garbage balloon diplomacy” with South Korea—a deeply unserious but symbolically important action—the attempt today to draw global attention back to the country’s nuclear capabilities is much more significant.