North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a newly unveiled nuclear fuel facility, revealing that weapons-grade material production has more than doubled over the past five years.

• Kim Jong Un visited a newly unveiled nuclear fuel facility, revealing that weapons-grade material production has more than doubled over the past five years.
• Kim cited worsening security threats and a long-term confrontation with “the most ferocious enemies” as justification for the expansion.
• Analysts believe the timing of Kim’s visit is strategic, aimed at making clear that denuclearisation is off the table ahead of potential diplomatic engagement — particularly with the US.

North Korea has unveiled a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels as leader Kim Jong Un calls for an “exponential” expansion of his country’s atomic arsenal.

During a visit to the facility on Thursday, Kim said production capacity for weapons-grade nuclear material was more than double its level of five years ago, the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Kim said the expansion is necessary due to what he referred to as worsening security threats and a long-term confrontation with the “most ferocious enemies”, reaffirming his government’s policy to increase its nuclear deterrence.

Kim was also briefed on new production processes incorporating more advanced technology and reviewed current output targets and future plans, KCNA said.

Photos published by KCNA showed Kim walking through narrow aisles with dense rows of silver tubes and pipes.

According to KCNA, a key consultative meeting on increasing nuclear forces was held on the same day.

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The country has set out the sequence and safeguards for executing an “ambitious future plan designed to beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate”, KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

Kim added that this is a “historic event that has set up an epochal milestone in rapidly upgrading our nuclear capabilities”.

According to some analysts, Kim’s visit appeared aimed at reinforcing his country’s position that denuclearisation is not an option before potential diplomatic engagement, particularly with the United States.

Chad O’Carroll, founder of the North Korea-focused website NK News, told the Reuters news agency that the site visit could be linked to a potential trip by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pyongyang.

O’Carroll noted that before travelling to Beijing in September, Kim reviewed plans for a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-20.

“The logic would be to demonstrate absolutely that denuclearisation is not possible, right on the eve of contact with the PRC,” or People’s Republic of China, O’Carroll said.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nuclear facility unveiled on Thursday was a uranium enrichment site, making it the third time that North Korea has disclosed a uranium site.