Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told NK News the centrifuges Kim inspected are “not P2-type centrifuges,” referring to the “centrifuges they initially relied on (sourced via AQ Khan).” “It looks like they have iterated to more efficient designs. We may have to significantly revise many of the estimates that are out there at the moment on how much weapons-useable fissile material they’ve amassed,” Panda said. According to Friday’s report, Kim said the U.S. and its allies have “crossed the red-line,” requiring him to build up North Korea’s nuclear forces and “preemptive strike capability.” Hong Sung Mu and other leading nuclear officials briefed Kim on how the facility is “dynamically producing nuclear materials by studying, developing and introducing all the system elements including centrifugal separators and various kinds of sensors and controllers” made domestically.
