North Korea could have up to 2 tonnes of highly enriched uranium: Seoul

SEOU: North Korea is believed to possess up to two tonnes of highly enriched uranium, South Korea’s unification minister said Thursday.

The North has long been known to hold a “significant” amount of highly enriched uranium, the key material used to produce nuclear warheads, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.

But in a rare public confirmation, South Korea’s unification minister said that “intelligence agencies estimate Pyongyang’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium – more than 90 percent pure – at up to 2,000 kilograms.”

“Even at this very hour, North Korea’s uranium centrifuges are operating at four sites,” Chung Dong-young told reporters.

“Only five to six kg of plutonium is enough to build a single nuclear bomb,” said Chung, adding that 2,000kg of highly enriched uranium, which could be reserved solely for plutonium production, would be “enough to make an enormous number of nuclear weapons.”