North Korea unveiling uranium enrichment site a US election-conscious move: NIS

Cho Tae-yong, the director of the National Intelligence Service, attends a meeting of the National Assembly intelligence committee on Thursday. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s spy agency considers North Korea publicizing leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to a previously undeclared uranium enrichment facility earlier this month to be a “US election-conscious move,” Rep. Lee Seong-kweon of the National Assembly intelligence committee said Thursday.

“Kim’s visits to facilities related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are rarely ever disclosed this way. The spy agency said the US presidential election was likely the factor behind the decision to publicize this particular visit,” the lawmaker told reporters after a closed-door briefing by the spy agency.

In a rare move, the North Korean leader visited one of country’s uranium enrichment facilities for producing weapon-grade nuclear materials and the Nuclear Weapons Institute, according to Pyongyang’s state-run Korea Central News Agency on Sept. 13.

The National Intelligence Service believes North Korea possesses enough plutonium and uranium to build “double-digit numbers of nuclear weapons,” Lee said.

South Korea’s spy agency believes North Korea is more likely to opt for other forms of military provocations such as ballistic missile or satellite launches in the weeks leading to the US election, although a seventh nuclear test is “a constant possibility that cannot be ruled out.”

If North Korea were to carry out a seventh nuclear test this year, the spy agency thinks it would take place after the US election, the lawmaker said.

The spy agency said North Korea has the ability to “exponentially expand its nuclear arsenal,” Rep. Park Sun-won said at the same briefing.

Park said the spy agency was unable to verify claims by North Korean leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong that its military reconnaissance satellite, Malligyong-1, was able to spy on the US nuclear-powered submarine that docked in Busan on Monday.

The spy agency was observing “significant and continuing” improvement in North Korea-Russia relations, including shipments of North Korean weapons to Russia, the lawmaker said.

The spy agency was watching for signs Russia may provide North Korea with satellite technology and other economic support.

It believes the relations between North Korea and China on the other hand could “easily be restored” given their historic resilience, despite signs of having soured recently.

The spy agency also said North Korea may revise its Constitution to support leader Kim Jong-un instituting a “two-state” system in the Korean Peninsula at the next meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly slated for early next month, the lawmaker added.

By Kim Arin(arin@heraldcorp.com)