A satellite image shows a nuclear material production factory, in Yongbyon, North Korea
| Photo Credit:
2026 Planet Labs PBC VIA REUTERS
North Korea has built a new
uranium enrichment facility at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex
that could house up to 28 centrifuge cascades, and started
operating an expanded annex at its Kangson enrichment site, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The Vienna-based nuclear watchdog said in a report the
findings pointed to a steady expansion of North Korea’s nuclear
infrastructure at multiple locations.
In the report, dated August 28, the IAEA said it relied on
satellite imagery and open-source material, including
photographs published by North Korean state media, to track
Pyongyang’s nuclear activities. The agency has had no inspectors
in North Korea since 2009.
It identified a new two-storey building at Yongbyon as the
site’s second uranium enrichment facility by comparing state
media photographs of a June visit by North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un with satellite images taken during the building’s
construction.
Photographs from the visit indicate gas centrifuge cascades
are installed on both the upper and lower floors of the main
building, the report said, adding the building could accommodate
up to 28 of the cascades shown in the photographs.
The report also said there were indications that operations
began in January at a uranium enrichment facility in Kangson,
near the capital Pyongyang, within an annex that had been
constructed in 2024.
The IAEA said the developments in North Korea’s nuclear
programme violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.
“The ongoing operation of enrichment facilities at Kangson
and Yongbyon and the reported further expansion of the DPRK’s
production of weapons-grade nuclear material is a cause for
serious concern,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a
statement to the board of governors on Monday, referring to the
North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea.
The report accompanied Grossi’s statement.
Pyongyang has repeatedly rejected the agency’s authority.
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in Vienna said last
September that North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state
had become irreversible and the IAEA had “no legal right … to
interfere in the internal affairs of a nuclear weapons state
which exists outside the NPT”, referring to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Published on September 9, 2026