North Korea releases first pictures of uranium enrichment site

North Korean state media released pictures Friday of the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, walking between rows of white tanks at the Nuclear Weapons Institute. The tanks are uranium enrichment cascades, Heritage Foundation nuclear research fellow Bob Peters told WORLD. The facility looks well-maintained and modern—like any military facility trying to create usable uranium at scale, Peters said. It’s unclear when these photos were taken or where the site is in North Korea. Kim Jong Un said the threat of those he called U.S. imperialists requires the constant expansion of the country’s nuclear force.

Why is North Korea releasing the photos now? Over the past several years, North Korea has been ramping up its nuclear program and increasing cooperation with other nuclear powers, including Russia and China. The country has also produced missiles that use solid fuel, allowing them to reach anywhere on the U.S. mainland. The photos are meant to back up North Korea's threats to the West, Peters said. Not only can they reach U.S. cities, but they have the ability to destroy them, he said.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard’s report in The World and Everything in It podcast on the role of NATO in deterring international aggression.