The International Atomic Energy Agency says North Korea has built a new two-storey uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon, adding another layer to the country’s nuclear programme. Rafael Grossi said the building is a cause for serious concern, after the agency identified it through satellite imagery.
The new structure could house up to 28 centrifuge cascades. The IAEA also said North Korea had begun operating an expanded annex at another enrichment site, sharpening questions about how quickly Pyongyang is adding capacity while the agency has no inspectors on the ground.
Yongbyon and the IAEA
The IAEA first referred to the existence of the building in June, when it said Kim Jong Un had visited a newly inaugurated nuclear materials production factory on 3 June. The agency identified that factory as the Yongbyon enrichment facility, and said Kim praised North Korea’s “greatly expanded production capacity” and said it would “offer the possibility of carrying out larger plans”.
Rafael Grossi said earlier this week that “The continuation and further development of the DPRK's nuclear programme are clear violations of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and are deeply regrettable”. The agency has had no inspectors in North Korea since 2009, so its assessments of Yongbyon and Kangson in January depend on satellite imagery and other remote monitoring rather than direct access.
Kangson in January
The IAEA said in April that North Korea appeared to be stepping up its ability to make nuclear bombs, and late last month it reported that North Korea had begun operating an expanded annex at another enrichment site. The agency said an annex had first been constructed in Kangson in 2024, then said there were indications that operations had started there in January this year.
That leaves the practical question in plain view: how much extra material North Korea can actually produce from Yongbyon and Kangson in January. The IAEA has put a number on the Yongbyon building’s possible scale, but the agency has not said how far the new capacity has already fed into North Korea’s wider arsenal, including the six nuclear weapons tests it has carried out since September 2017.
North Korea and the UN Security Council
Lee Jae Myung said in August that talks could offer “effective ways to halt the advancement of the North's nuclear capabilities”, but the latest IAEA findings point in the opposite direction. North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2022 and vowed never to relinquish its weapons, while the IAEA says the new and expanded sites show further development and North Korea has not publicly responded.
The next test for the IAEA is whether satellite imagery will show more construction, more cascades, or a fuller operating pattern at Yongbyon. For now, the most concrete answer is also the most unsettling: North Korea is adding space for enrichment faster than the watchdog can see it directly.
