North Korea (DPRK) can have up to two tons of highly enriched uranium, which is crucial in the production of nuclear weapons. This was stated on Thursday by the South Korean Unification Ministry, writes TASR according to AFP report.
- The DPRK allegedly has up to two tons of highly enriched uranium.
- South Korean secret services estimate four active centrifugs.
- The DPRK expresses its willingness to negotiate with the US, but it places conditions.
- International sanctions have not yet been restricted by a military nuclear program.
According to the South Korean Ministry of Defense, it has long been known that the DPRK has a “considerable” amount of enriched uranium, but so far no one has publicly included a specific figure. The Jong Tong-Jong Unification Minister, referring to the intelligence estimate, said in his statement that uranium supplies with a purity of more than 90 percent in the DPRK reach up to 2,000 kilograms.
“Even at the moment, North Korea are in operation of centrifugs in four places,” said Jong Tong-Jong. Only five to six kilograms of plutonium are enough to produce one atomic bomb, Jong said. Two tons of highly enriched uranium, which could be reserved exclusively for the production of plutonia, would be enough to produce “a huge number of nuclear weapons.”
The South Korean minister pointed out the urgent need to stop the DPRK in the development of nuclear weapons, but according to him, sanctions will not be effective for this purpose. The only solution is to meet the leaders of the United States and North Korea, he added.
The DPRK is willing to negotiate with the US if Washington stops insisting on denukleralization
The DPRK leader Kim Jong-un earlier this week, the United States’s willingness indicated that Washington stops insist that the DPRK surrenders to nuclear weapons. Kim claims that it is for the DPRK to obtain these weapons to protect its security – given the serious threats by the US and South Korea – the question of survival.
The DPRK, to which UN sanctions are imposed for its nuclear and ballistic programs, carried out its first nuclear weapon test in 2006 and until September 2024 did not publicly admit details of its uranium enrichment facility. South Korean secret services assume that the DPRK has several of these devices.
