SEOUL, South Korea – In a surprise disclosure, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been photographed touring a key nuclear arms facility, offering the world its first inside look at the regime’s most secretive program.

Without citing either the date or the location of Mr. Kim’s visit, the state-controlled Korea Central News Agency Friday published the first photographs made public from inside the North’s Nuclear Weapons Institute, where highly enriched uranium is produced for the North’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

“He went round the control room of the uranium enrichment base to learn about the overall operation of the production lines,” the KCNA stated in a report monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. The institute “is dynamically producing nuclear materials for nuclear defense.”

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While film and images have been released from the facilities set around the country’s centerpiece Yongbyon reactor, no images have previously been shown of the interior of a facility producing highly enriched uranium needed for nuclear bombs.

North Korea’s refusal to give up its uranium enrichment programs has repeatedly frustrated U.S. efforts to ease tensions on the divided peninsula, torpedoing a deal reached during the Clinton administration and leading to the breakdown of President Trump’s personal summit diplomacy with Mr. Kim in 2019.

In his talks with Mr. Trump, Mr. Kim offered to give up his facilities at Yongbyon — a significant offer, which would have led to the elimination of some 80% of North Korean nuclear capabilities, according to a joint report released by British and-Russian nuclear research institutes in 2021.

However, South Korean and U.S. officials have long suspected that North Korea maintains a facility for enriching uranium at Kangson, west of Pyongyang. Mr. Trump was dissatisfied with Mr. Kim’s offer to close Yongbyon but not other suspect sites.

Some South Korean and U.S. analysts say it appears the photos released Friday were taken at the Kangson facility.

Mr. Kim has been increasingly visible showcasing the North’s military might, visiting a military special operations base last week and being photographed with a sniper rifle and an automatic rifle. He also oversaw the test-firing of a huge 600mm multiple launch rocket artillery system. North Korea also test-fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.

Since the breakdown of direct diplomacy with the U.S. in 2019, North Korea has been advancing multiple arms programs. This year, it also upgraded its relations with Russia, offering it both a new economic lifeline and, potentially, new military technologies.

‘Useful insight’

Nuclear analysts were impressed by North Korea’s latest disclosure, saying the peek inside the institute appeared designed to showcase the sophistication and sustainability of the country’s atomic weapons programs.

On X, Carnegie Endowment fellow Ankit Panda said in an online post that the images reveal “useful insight into changes over time in [North Korean] HEU production.”

“Fidelity over time of [North Korean] fissile material output has gone down, but this should help rectify that a bit,” Mr. Panda, an expert on North Korean missiles and nuclear programs, said, adding that the photos show that the facility has obtained new centrifuges.

Centrifuges are a key component in uranium enrichment. Some 1,000 centrifuges were visible in the new images: approximately enough to create a warhead per year.

North Korean officials told a Stanford University delegation, invited to Yongbyon in 2010, that some 2,000 centrifuges were in operation at the facility — essentially confirming the U.S. suspicions that killed off the Clinton administration’s “Agreed Framework” deal.

Yongbyon, the site of North Korea’s only working nuclear reactor, is also the centerpiece of the country’s major atomic research complex.

It is unclear which facility was recently visited by Mr. Kim, but Mr. Panda speculated on X that the new photos reveal Kangson.

Specialist media NK News reached the same conclusion, titling its piece, “North Korea appears to confirm existence of second uranium enrichment plant.”

Citing satellite imagery, NK News had, in March, revealed new construction at Kangson.

North Korea detonated its first nuclear device in 2006, followed by five more successful tests, all in defiance of multiple U.N. resolutions and international sanctions.

The nation is proceeding with not only a dual-track nuclear arms program, based on both plutonium and highly enriched uranium. It is also creating an increasingly diverse range of delivery systems, from intercontinental ballistic missiles to mid-range cruise missiles and tactical artillery missiles, to what Pyongyang says is an atomic-capable underwater drone.

North Korea has surprised some analysts by refraining from atomic tests since 2017, particularly given that the country has not yet demonstrated a capability in battlefield, tactical nuclear arms. Nuclear tests not only offer Pyongyang scientists important data, they also send highly newsworthy political messages to the wider world about its capabilities.  

Some experts believe that the ongoing U.S. election campaign offers Pyongyang an appropriate stage for an eye-catching nuclear test. Others say the regime may prefer to approach the new administration next year with a clean slate.