SEOUL
\nNorth Korea is showing a \u201cvery serious increase\u201d in its ability to produce atomic weapons, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday on a visit to Seoul. The diplomatically isolated north is believed to operate multiple facilities for enriching uranium, a key step in making nuclear warheads, South Korea\u2019s spy agency has said.
\nThey include one at the Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks but later reactivated in 2021. \u201cIn our periodic assessments, we have been able to confirm that there\u2019s a rapid increase in the operations\u201d of the Yongbyon reactor, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told reporters in Seoul.
\nThe agency also observed a rise in operations at Yongbyon\u2019s reprocessing unit and light-water reactor, as well as the activation of other facilities, Grossi said. \u201cAll that points to a very serious increase in the capabilities of (the) Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the area of nuclear weapons production, which is estimated at a few dozen warheads,\u201d he said, using North Korea\u2019s official name.
\nNorth Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is under rafts of UN sanctions for its banned weapons programmes. It has declared that it will never surrender its nuclear weapons, and cut off access to IAEA inspectors in 2009. The agency has noted the construction of a \u201cnew facility similar to the enrichment facility in Yongbyon\u201d, Grossi said.
\nIt was \u201cnot easy to calculate\u201d any production increases without visiting the site.However, \u201cwe consider, looking at external features of the facility, that there will be significant increase in the enrichment capacity of the DPRK\u201d, he said.
\nAsked whether Russia was assisting North Korea\u2019s nuclear development, Grossi said the IAEA had not seen \u201canything in particular in that regard\u201d. North Korea has sent ground troops and artillery shells to support Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and observers say Pyongyang is receiving military technology assistance from Moscow in return. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL North Korea is showing a \u201cvery serious increase\u201d in its ability to produce atomic weapons, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday on a visit to Seoul. The diplomatically isolated north is believed to operate multiple facilities for enriching uranium, a key step in making nuclear warheads, South Korea\u2019s spy agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-542040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n