U.N. Atomic Body: ‘Very Serious Increase’ in North Korea Nuclear Weapons Production

By Frances Martel

The head of the United Nations nuclear body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned on Wednesday that he had reason to believe communist North Korea had engaged in a “very serious increase” in activity to make nuclear weapons.

Rafael Grossi made the comments during a visit to South Korea this week in which he addressed several nuclear crises around the world, including ongoing negotiations to end hostilities in Iran. In addition to running the IAEA and meeting with senior South Korean leaders, Grossi is also campaigning to become the next U.N. secretary-general and used his time in South Korea to meet with former U.N. head Ban Ki-moon.

North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un has regularly, throughout the past five years, called for an “exponential” increase in his country’s illicit nuclear weapons arsenal, describing it as necessary to prevent an invasion by South Korea or the United States. North Korea is technically in a state of war with both, as the armistice agreement that ended Korean War hostilities in 1953 was not a peace treaty and did not formally end the war.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Grossi noted that North Korea has not allowed the IAEA to inspect any of its nuclear facilities since 2009, defying international law, but that the agency nonetheless has attempted to keep track of its nuclear development using outside evidence such as satellite images. Based on its efforts, Grossi warned that the IAEA had reason to believe North Korea was experiencing “a very serious increase in the area of nuclear weapons production, which is estimated at a few dozen warheads.” He came to this conclusion via observing a “rapid increase in the operations” at the country’s Yongbyun nuclear complex, which is believed to produce fissile material used in weapons.

In addition to activity at Yongbyon, Grossi said that the IAEA had detected action to build a “new facility similar to the enrichment facility in Yongbyon.”

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Read Full Article Here… | Breitbart

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