Kim Jong Un Quietly Advances North Korea's Nuclear Program
The facility, which reportedly resembles a suspected enrichment plant just outside of the capital of Pyongyang, could eventually provide fissile material to expand the country's nuclear arsenal.
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to continue building his UN-sanctioned nuclear arsenal, citing the "grave threat" posed by the U.S. and its allies, according to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence.
North Korea is estimated to have around 50 nuclear warheads and enough fissile material for as many as 90. Kim's emphasis on expanding this capability—along with frequent ballistic missile tests and the abandonment of reunification as a long-term goal—has driven inter-Korean tensions to their highest level in decades.
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean embassy in China and the U.S. Department of Defense with emailed requests for comment.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a June 9 statement that the agency is "monitoring" a new construction at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, located about 60 miles north of Pyongyang.
The new building has features and dimensions closely resembling those of the Kangson site, a facility west of the capital long suspected to be a uranium enrichment plant believed to produce uranium-235, the fissile material essential for nuclear weapons.
"The continuation and further development of the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea's) nuclear programme are clear violations of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and are deeply regrettable," Grossi said, using North Korea's official name.
The report comes after news late last year that Kim Jong Un visited the Kangson facility. During the visit, he called for an increase in centrifuge production for weapons-grade material and warned against complacency, according to state media.
In April, Grossi warned North Korea's progress on its nuclear agenda was "completely off the charts," with no effective way to monitor its activities.
Attempts to stem the flow of materials that could aid Kim's nuclear program became even more problematic last year when Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts enforcing sanctions on North Korea.
Jenny Town, director of the Stimson Center think tank's Korea Program and North Korea-focused analysis group 38 North, wrote for the Hudson Institute think tank: "Changing how the United States approaches its bilateral relationship with North Korea, not just the nuclear issue, will require enormous political capital, leadership, and resilience to criticism.
"The nuclear issue will still need to be part of the discussion, but keeping it as the main determinant of relations will prolong the stalemate and worsen the security environment."
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard warned lawmakers in March that North Korea is "probably prepared" to conduct a seventh nuclear test on short notice.
Members of President Donald Trump's team have reportedly discussed reopening dialogue with Kim, according to sources familiar with the discussions. During his first term, Trump met with Kim on three occasions in a failed bid to persuade the North Korean leader to walk back his nuclear weapons program.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The brash and chaotic first days of President Donald Trump 's Department of Government Efficiency, once led by the world's richest man Elon Musk, spawned state-level DOGE mimicry as Republican governors and lawmakers aim to show they are in step with their party's leader. Governors have always made political hay out of slashing waste or taming bureaucracy, but DOGE has, in some ways, raised the stakes for them to show that they are zealously committed to cutting costs. Many drive home the point that they have always been focused on cutting government, even if they're not conducting mass layoffs. 'I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in announcing her own task force in January. Critics agree that some of these initiatives are nothing new and suggest they are wasteful, essentially duplicating built-in processes that are normally the domain of legislative committees or independent state auditors. At the same time, some governors are using their DOGE vehicles to take aim at GOP targets of the moment, such as welfare programs or diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And some governors who might be eyeing a White House run in 2028 are rebranding their cost-cutting initiatives as DOGE, perhaps eager to claim the mantle of the most DOGE of them all. No chainsaws in the states At least 26 states have initiated DOGE-style efforts of varying kinds, according to the Economic Policy Institute based in Washington, D.C. Most DOGE efforts were carried out through a governor's order — including by governors in Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma — or by lawmakers introducing legislation or creating a legislative committee. The state initiatives have a markedly different character than Trump's slash-and-burn approach, symbolized by Musk's chainsaw-brandishing appearance at a Conservative Political Action Committee appearance in February. Governors are tending to entrust their DOGE bureaus to loyalists, rather than independent auditors, and are often employing what could be yearslong processes to consolidate procurement, modernize information technology systems, introduce AI tools, repeal regulations or reduce car fleets, office leases or worker headcounts through attrition. Steve Slivinski, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute who researches state government regulatory structures, said that a lot of what he has seen from state-level DOGE initiatives are the 'same stuff you do on a pretty regular basis anyway' in state governments. States typically have routine auditing procedures and the ways states have of saving money are 'relatively unsexy," Slivinski said. And while the state-level DOGE vehicles might be useful over time in finding marginal improvements, "branding it DOGE is more of a press op rather than anything new or substantially different than what they usually do,' Slivinski said. Analysts at the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute say that governors and lawmakers, primarily in the South and Midwest, are using DOGE to breathe new life into long-term agendas to consolidate power away from state agencies and civil servants, dismantle public services and benefit insiders and privatization advocates. 'It's not actually about cutting costs because of some fiscal responsibility,' EPI analyst Nina Mast said. Governors promoting spending cuts Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry rebranded his 'Fiscal Responsibility Program' as Louisiana DOGE, and promoted it as the first to team up with the federal government to scrub illegitimate enrollees from welfare programs. It has already netted $70 million in savings in the Medicaid program in an 'unprecedented' coordination, Landry said in June. In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt — who says in a blurb on the Oklahoma DOGE website that 'I've been DOGE-ing in Oklahoma since before it was cool" — made a DOGE splash with the first report by his Division of Government Efficiency by declaring that the state would refuse some $157 million in federal public health grants. The biggest chunk of that was $132 million intended to support epidemiology and laboratory capacity to control infectious disease outbreaks. The Stitt administration said that funding — about one-third of the total over an eight-year period — exceeded the amount needed. The left-leaning Oklahoma Policy Institute questioned the wisdom of that, pointing to rising numbers of measles and whooping cough cases and the rocky transition under Stitt of the state's public health lab from Oklahoma City to Stillwater. Oklahoma Democrats issued rebukes, citing Oklahoma's lousy public health rankings. 'This isn't leadership,' state Sen. Carri Hicks said. 'It's negligence." 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Achieving that savings — largely by standardizing information technology and purchasing — would sometimes require up-front spending and take years to realize savings. ___ Follow Marc Levy on X at: Marc Levy, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
