The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim Jong Un oversaw exercises at the “training base of the special operation armed force of the Korean People’s Army (KPA)” on Sept. 11. Kim called on the unit to “intensify the drills for real war” and he posed for photos surrounded by muscular shirtless men, watching them conduct strength exercises and separate shooting drills. He ordered the “Ministry of National Defence and the General Staff to pay positive attention to providing conditions for further updating training facilities and putting their operation on a scientific basis in the future.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured a uranium enrichment facility to inspect nuclear weapon production plans, according to state media on Friday. He also oversaw military special forces exercises and a tactical nuclear rocket test using a new launch vehicle. The Rodong Sinmun reported that Kim visited the Nuclear Weapons Institute and a “weapons-grade nuclear materials production base,” where he “presented important tasks for the long-term plan to increase the production” of nuclear weapons.
Photos showed Kim walking past rows of centrifuges at the unnamed enrichment facility, the first time state media has shown Kim at such a site. He called for a higher number of more capable centrifuges to boost his plans to “exponentially” increase nuclear warhead production. Kim also visited a construction project to “expand the capacity” of such production.
Four of the five photos released with the report show a cascade hall with a dated interior and one shows a more modern room where centrifuges were in the process of being installed. This implies the latter was recently built or that centrifuges are being updated or replaced. North Korea’s main nuclear complex is located in Yongbyon, where enrichment facilities were last expanded in 2021, while NK Pro was first to report earlier this year on a construction project to expand the floorspace of a widely suspected uranium enrichment facility in Kangson to the west of the capital.
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.
The DPRK leader “stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense true to the Party’s line of building up nuclear armed forces.” The production facility must also “further raise the individual separation ability of the centrifuge and push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge which has already reached its completion stage as planned so as to further strengthen the foundation for producing weapon-grade nuclear materials,” according to the Rodong Sinmun report.
South Korea’s unification ministry strongly condemned North Korea’s nuclear weapon development and warned Pyongyang of an “overwhelmingly strong” military response to any DPRK “nuclear threat or provocation” in a statement on Friday. “North Korean authorities should again realize there is absolutely nothing to gain from having nuclear weapons and must quickly go down the road of providing freedom, livelihood and peace for the North Korean people,” the ministry stated. “We demand [DPRK authorities] immediately enter denuclearization talks as our government has suggested.”
In a related move on Thursday, Kim also oversaw a 600mm multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) test, a type of missile primarily aimed at South Korea that Kim previously claimed can be fitted with a tactical nuclear warhead. It is also known as the KN-25. Rockets were fired in quick succession from a new six-tube wheeled launch vehicle design that state media first unveiled earlier this week in a report on the DPRK leader touring the factory where it was produced. The test was intended to verify the new transporter erector launcher’s (TEL) “more developed drive system and completely automated firing process,” and proved successful in both regards, the Rodong Sinmun said Friday.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced detection of the launch in real time on Thursday morning, saying multiple missiles flew around 223 miles (360 km). North Korea also did not disclose the precise number of rockets fired but showed Kim Jong Un looking at a screen with four individual target screens next to images of them striking a commonly targeted rocky island off the northeast coast. NK News analysis of state media photos and satellite imagery suggests the launch took place from a highway near the Majang-ri missile base south of Pyongyang on the border of Junghwa and Sangwon counties, 228 miles (367 km) from the target island.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also reported that Kim Jong Un oversaw exercises at the “training base of the special operation armed force of the Korean People’s Army (KPA)” on Sept. 11. Kim called on the unit to “intensify the drills for real war” and he posed for photos surrounded by muscular shirtless men, watching them conduct strength exercises and separate shooting drills. He ordered the “Ministry of National Defence and the General Staff to pay positive attention to providing conditions for further updating training facilities and putting their operation on a scientific basis in the future.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a training base for special operations forces and a test-firing of a new 600mm multiple rocket launcher, state media said Friday. Kim inspected the training base of the special operation armed force of the Korean People's Army (KPA) on Wednesday to supervise a drill, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He toured various facilities and training grounds, commenting that they were effectively organized to simulate real warfare, it said.
"The KPA should be fully ready to check the enemy at once and mercilessly and completely repress them even if a war breaks out at once today, and it is the first patriotism and loyalty to the state and people and the foremost revolutionary duty for the soldiers to devote their all to the intensive drills for a real war," he said. In addition, Kim oversaw the test-firing to evaluate the performance of a new 600mm multiple rocket launcher, the KCNA said in a separate report.
On Thursday, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, according to the South Korean military. The missiles were detected from the Pyongyang area at 7:10 a.m., though further details, such as the number of missiles fired, were not provided. "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," the KCNA said. (Yonhap)
The DPRK leader “stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense true to the Party’s line of building up nuclear armed forces.” The production facility must also “further raise the individual separation ability of the centrifuge and push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge which has already reached its completion stage as planned so as to further strengthen the foundation for producing weapon-grade nuclear materials,” according to the Rodong Sinmun report.
