UPDATE 2 - North Korea publicly discloses uranium enrichment facility for 1st time

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, BACKGROUND, STATEMENT BY NORTH KOREA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY; EDITS THROUGH

By Riyaz ul Khaliq and Alperen Aktas

ISTANBUL (AA) - North Korea publicly disclosed a uranium enrichment facility for the first time as its leader Kim Jong Un called for an expansion of the country's nuclear capabilities, according to a report published Friday.

However, the report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency did not provide the exact location or date of the inspection but said Kim’s visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute was part of plans to enhance the country’s nuclear deterrence.

The release of the photos of the facility is the “first time” they have been made public, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News

Kim “went round the control room of the uranium enrichment base to learn about the overall operation of the production lines” and was briefed “in detail about the daily plan for assembling equipment,” the report added.

He emphasized the need to increase the number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, aiming to exponentially boost the production of nuclear weapons for self-defense.

The report also noted that the North Korean leader slammed “nuclear threats perpetrated by the US imperialists-led vassal forces” which have “become more undisguised and crossed the red-line.”

Calling for a “fresh leap forward,” Kim told the nuclear weapons production team to “bolster up the nuclear war deterrence of the country in quality and quantity in a substantial and accelerated way.”

Kim also oversaw military special forces exercises on Wednesday.

In 2010, North Korea took US nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker on a tour of its uranium enrichment facility in the northwestern Yongbyon county of the North Pyongan province.

It hosts North Korea’s major nuclear facility, Yongbyon Nuclear Science and Weapons Research Center, which operates its first nuclear reactors.

North Korea has been under a sweeping UN arms embargo since 2006 over its nuclear facilities. The sanctions have since been repeatedly tightened to include the import and export of nearly all types of weapons.

A North Korea sanctions committee was established by the UN in 2006 to monitor the implementation of the sanctions in question.

The Panel of Experts linked to the committee was tasked with preparing reports on developments but an extension of the committee was vetoed by Russia early this year in March.

Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry slammed a meeting among the member nations of the US-led UN Command which oversees the demilitarized zone from the southern side of the border.

“The US and its vassal countries' collective military confrontation” against North Korea will “serve as a motive and catalyst for accelerating the formation and development of a just strategic axis that thoroughly disallows the imbalance of power in the Korean peninsula and the region,” it said in a statement.

Pyongyang will “steadily take a new strategic counteraction to contain and frustrate the reckless confrontation moves of the hostile forces to disturb peace and stability in the Korean peninsula by mobilizing the illegal war organization,” it added.

The UN Command was established on July 24, 1950 following the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, with China on the side of North Korea. The war ended in 1953 with armistice, after which the US deployed around 28,500 soldiers in South Korea.

It is headquartered in the US Army Garrison Humphreys in South Korea.