South Korea says the North has 4 uranium enrichment services to construct nuclear weapons

A high South Korean official mentioned on Thursday (September 25, 2025) that North Korea is working a complete of 4 uranium enrichment services, including to outdoors assessments that it has a number of covert atomic crops together with the broadly identified web site close to the capital of Pyongyang.

The North’s chief Kim Jong Un has referred to as for a speedy enlargement of his nation’s nuclear weapons program and lately mentioned he would by no means make the arms a negotiating level in response to overtures by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The South’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young mentioned uranium enrichment centrifuges on the 4 services — which would come with the identified web site at Yongbyon, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Pyongyang — are working on a regular basis and pressured the urgency to cease the North’s nuclear program.

Mr. Chung didn’t elaborate additional on the situation of the opposite, undeclared nuclear websites. He spoke in regards to the North with native reporters, in accordance with his Ministry.

Mr. Chung cited an evaluation that the North possesses 2,000 kilograms (about 4,400 kilos) of extremely enriched uranium. He first mentioned that was primarily based on intelligence however the Ministry later clarified it was attributed to civilian specialists.

If confirmed, the quantity would additionally sign a pointy enhance in North Korea’s stockpile of nuclear materials.

In 2018, Stanford University students, together with nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker who had beforehand visited the Yongbyon advanced, mentioned the North had about 250 to 500 kilograms (550 to 1,100 kilos) of extremely enriched uranium, ample for 25 to 30 nuclear gadgets.

Nuclear weapons will be constructed utilizing both extremely enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has services to supply each at Yongbyon. Last yr, North Korea launched images of what it mentioned was a uranium enrichment facility, the primary such disclosure because it confirmed the one at Yongbyon to Hecker and others in 2010.

The location and different particulars of the ability within the images stay unknown.

Foreign specialists consider North Korea has constructed further uranium-enrichment websites as Mr. Kim has been pushing onerous to develop his nuclear arsenal.

A plutonium plant is often giant and generates a lot warmth, making it simpler for outsiders to detect than a uranium enrichment plant, which is extra compact and will be simply hidden from satellite tv for pc cameras. Centrifuges to counterpoint uranium will be clandestinely operated underground.

It’s virtually inconceivable to independently affirm what number of nuclear weapons North Korea has manufactured, primarily based on nuclear fissile supplies it has produced at Yongbyon and elsewhere.

In 2018, a high South Korean official instructed parliament that North Korea was estimated to have already manufactured 20-60 nuclear weapons, however some specialists say the North seemingly has greater than 100. Estimates of what number of nuclear bombs North Korea can add to its arsenal yearly range, starting from six to as many as 18.

International diplomacy on ending North Korea’s nuclear program has stalled since 2019, when high-stakes summitry between Kim and Trump fell aside with none settlement.

At the time, Kim provided to dismantle the Yongbyon advanced if he received in depth sanctions aid. But the American facet rejected his proposal, as a result of it might be a restricted denuclearization step that would go away North Korea’s different, already constructed nuclear weapons and nuclear services intact.

Kim has since shunned any diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea and targeted on working weapons exams and perfecting nuclear missiles that focus on his rivals.

Since returning to workplace, Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed hopes of restarting talks with Mr. Kim. Earlier this week, Kim mentioned he nonetheless has good recollections of Mr. Trump however urged the U.S. to drop its demand that the North give up its nuclear arms as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy.

Analysts assess that Mr. Kim would seemingly understand an enlarged nuclear arsenal as a supply of better leverage in potential talks with the U.S.

They say that in any potential negotiations, Mr. Kim would once more search to win sweeping sanctions aid and improved ties with the U.S. in return for a partial give up of his nuclear and missile applications.