North Korea’s recent abrupt disclosure of a top-secret facility for producing highly enriched uranium has captured the world’s attention.
On Sept. 13, the state-run Korean Central News Agency showed leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a uranium enrichment facility at an undisclosed location. Kim said the very sight of the facility was moving and ordered workers to focus on producing weapons-grade fissile material to enable an exponential increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal, KCNA reported.
There is good reason to believe that the location of the uranium enrichment facility described in the KCNA report is the Kangson site in Kochang village, Nampo City. But some still believe that the place Kim was so eager to visit was the Yongbyon nuclear complex or some other location.
Several years ago, defector groups in South Korea argued that the Kangson site was a uranium enrichment facility that North Korean authorities had secretly moved from Yongbyon in an attempt to deceive global observers. In this article, I examine the arguments of defector groups and experts about the Kangson site and summarize my own position.
Expansion of the Kangson site
Satellite images from Google Earth show that nine five-meter long partitions have been installed under the square structure of the suspected nuclear facility at the Kangson site in Nampo. This appears to be an extension of the main building in the form of an annex with an estimated area of 1,595 square meters. The expansion of the Kangson site was first reported in March by NK Pro, a media outlet specializing in North Korean issues. Since then, other foreign media have reported that a blue-roofed or green-roofed annex has been built there.
The Kangson site is located in Kochang village, Chollima county, Nampo. The site covers an area of about 6.7 hectares and is well connected to the rest of the country by the Taedong River, the Pyongyang-Nampo Expressway and the Youth Heroic Highway about one kilometer away. The facility is believed to produce weapons-grade nuclear fuel by processing highly enriched uranium in more than a thousand fast-spinning centrifuges.
A large factory-like building, 114 meters wide and 50 meters long, can be seen in the center of the Kangson site. This building appears to be the uranium enrichment facility. It is surrounded by workshops, administrative support facilities, guard facilities and dormitories. An “immortality tower” and a monument praising the North Korean regime can be seen in the area, and the Pyongyang-Nampo railway runs right by the facility.
The Kangson site is surrounded by various military bases, including four anti-aircraft bases. Two of the bases are on the ridge on either side of Kochang Middle School, and the other two are on the plain. Google Earth satellite imagery shows eight anti-aircraft guns installed on the perimeter of each base.
In short, the Kangson site is robustly defended with anti-aircraft bases in close proximity in the event of an airstrike, suggesting that this is a highly strategic military facility.
Kangson site supported by a nuclear physics research center
The Kangso branch of the Central Nuclear Science Research Center was built about 2.2 kilometers from the suspected Kangson nuclear facility. The research center is said to provide technical support to the Kangson site by conducting important experiments in nuclear physics research.
Kim Hung-kwang, head of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a defector organization in South Korea, said in a YouTube broadcast several years ago that the Kangson site processes highly enriched uranium and produces weapons-grade nuclear fuel. Kim based his claim on intelligence from inside North Korea.
According to Kim, the Kangson site is referred to locally as the “311 Research Institute.” He also claimed that North Korea has secretly relocated both uranium enrichment equipment and a nuclear physics research center from the well-known Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Kim also said that North Korean authorities are secretly dispersing nuclear facilities from Yongbyon to various other sites while avoiding the attention of the international community. He described this as part of a “smokescreen tactic” for future talks on the North Korean nuclear issue.
Yongbyon, Kangson, or a third location?
Experts remain divided over the location of the uranium enrichment facility that Kim Jong Un visited on Sept. 13. There are compelling arguments that the released photographs are consistent with the Kangson sites, but others still believe that Kim may have gone to Yongbyon or even a third site.
Olli Heinonen, former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, noted that satellite images suggest that the buildings at the Kangson complex are two or three stories high. According to Heinonen, it would not make sense for the centrifuges to be on the first floor with offices above. He believes that the uranium enrichment facility that Kim is shown visiting in photographs released by North Korean media is probably not located at the Kangson site.
Jacob Bogle, an American civilian analyst of satellite imagery, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Sept. 19 that he believes Kim visited the Kangson site.
“The double support beams, column supports, and vertical supports shown in the satellite photos of the Kangson complex facility expansion work are the same as those shown in the photos released by North Korean state media,” he told RFA.
I agree that the facility announced by North Korea on Sept. 13 is at the Kangson site, not the Yongbyon nuclear complex. Kim and his family, as well as the rest of the North Korean elite, are reluctant to visit Yongbyon because of the nuclear radiation that contaminates the complex.
According to defector testimony in an English-language pamphlet published by the North Korean Writers in Exile chapter of PEN International, there are frequent cases of so-called “ghost diseases” around the Yongbyon nuclear complex and the Punggye village nuclear test site, apparently as a result of severe radiation in the area.
Media outlets including Daily NK and RFA have reported that soldiers, workers and civilians in Yongbyon, Punggye village and Pyongsan have short life expectancies, have children with congenital disorders and often die of unexplained “ghost diseases.” Reports describe how depression, fear and anxiety are rampant in these areas, and how the loyalty and morale of the residents is at a low ebb.
In addition, the North Korean regime is reportedly denying people in the radiation-tainted village of Punggye medical travel passes to ensure that they do not enter the capital city of Pyongyang, home of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
So it seems unlikely that the uranium enrichment site Kim was shown touring in North Korean media photos was the Yongbyon nuclear complex, a site feared and shunned by the North Korean elite. That is why I cast my vote for Kangson as the site presented in the media.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
September 30, 2024 at 10:39AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)