North Korea boosting ability to manufacture nuclear arms, IAEA chief warns

The nuclear watchdog’s chief says there is a rapid increase in operations at North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor.

Save

Share

North Korea is showing a “very serious increase” in its ability to produce atomic weapons, according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The diplomatically isolated country is believed to operate multiple facilities for enriching uranium, a key step in making nuclear warheads, South Korea’s spy agency has said. These include one at the Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks but later reactivated in 2021.