North expanding chemical complex critical to nuclear and missile programs

North Korea is expanding a chemical plant that plays a crucial role in its nuclear and missile program, according to satellite imagery examined by analysis group 38 North and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control.

In this footage broadcast by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central Television on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un examines weapons systems manufactured at what state media called "key munitions plants" during a two-day inspection that began on Monday. [YONHAP]

North Korea is expanding a chemical plant that plays a crucial role in its nuclear and missile program, according to satellite imagery examined by analysis group 38 North and the Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control.

The images, taken via commercial satellites, show that the Unha chemical complex near Manpho, Chagang Province, is undergoing expansion and modernization and exhibits signs of increasing production of reagents, such as nitric and sulfuric acids, that are associated with the reprocessing, enrichment and conversion of nuclear materials.

The Unha chemical complex “holds considerable strategic importance to North Korea,” according to 38 North, which noted that a declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report from 1980 linked Unha with the production of liquid rocket propellant and other chemical products needed to support North Korea’s demanding strategic industries.

Beyond Parallel, a North Korea analysis group run by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, released a report in March 2023 that determined Unha as a key source of reagents to the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, and that three specialized railcars have been used to transport reagents between the two sites.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed in a board of governors meeting held in Vienna in November that North Korea is running its Yongbyon nuclear complex again after a short period of inactivity between September and October.

The Yongbyon nuclear complex in North Pyongan Province is the North’s primary uranium enrichment and reprocessing facility.

Yongbyon’s 5-megawatt reactor has long been the focal point of previous failed international diplomatic efforts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

The reactor is believed to be the regime’s sole source of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing and is capable of producing six kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods per year.

In the meeting, Grossi confirmed there have been “increased levels of activity” at and near the reactor, and they could observe, since mid-October, “a strong water outflow” from the reactor's cooling system.

Grossi also told the board that the Punggye-ri underground nuclear testing site in North Hamgyong Province remains “prepared to support a new nuclear test” following the restoration of multiple tunnels, which was detected via satellite photography in 2022.

Although South Korea and the United States have called on the North to return to talks to negotiate its complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, the North demanded the scrapping of international sanctions and joint South Korea-U. S. military exercises as preconditions for the resumption of talks.

In recent months, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his influential sister Kim Yo-jong have staked out an even harder-line position against abandoning nuclear weapons and threatened to use them against the South.

The North’s state media reported on Wednesday that Kim Jong-un called South Korea his regime’s “main enemy” and said he has “no intent to avoid war” during a two-day inspection of a munition factory that began Monday.

According to the report, Kim also said the North “will not hesitate to annihilate” the South using “all means and forces available” in the event of an armed conflict.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]