North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has told workers at a brand-new nuclear production factory to work double-quick on producing fresh atomic weapons to bolster the nation’s growing arsenal.
The Korean leader was photographed inspecting his latest nuclear material production plant on Wednesday (June 3), with the leader providing on-site guidance to officials and experts. As per state media reports, he was so pleased that he demanded the factory increase its production output.
Kim, accompanied by leading officials from the Ministry of Munitions Industry of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute was snapped inspecting production lines, reviewing projects with senior officials, and mingling with workers as they brought about the nation’s latest advances in nuclear technology.
View 4 ImagesStaff at the factory looked thrilled about being rewarded for a job well done with more work(Image: KCNA)
The North Korean leader told those gathered at the plant that the production capacity of weapons-grade nuclear material has now reached a level exceeding twice its past output thanks to efforts over the past five years, and called on workers at the factory to increase their output even further.
As per Northern newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Kim also announced a plan to “exponentially strengthen the national nuclear force,” stating that today’s nuclear potential was borne off the back of a “noble path of struggle” by North Korean scientists in the past five years.
View 4 ImagesKim, being shown some pretty neat stuff by atomic officials
Accelerating the growth of the arsenal would act as a war deterrence, Kim said, calling it a “fundamental guarantee and powerful safeguard that reliably ensures the country’s security, interests, and right to development.”
He added that this expansion was a necessary position for dealing with a long-term confrontation against “the most vicious adversaries”, in a startling threat to the West.
Kim’s tour of the newly operational atomic facility comes weeks after North Korea launched a mystery projectile into the ocean in its latest weapons test ordered by its Supreme Leader.
South Korean military chiefs said the unidentified projectile was fired off the peninsula’s west coast on Tuesday. It is the North’s latest weapons test this year.
View 4 ImagesKim and his crew(Image: KCNA)
It was reported the projectiles flew an estimated range of 49 miles before falling into the Yellow Sea on May 26. Likewise, that followed another launch by the North on April 19 in which it fired multiple short-range missiles in what state media described as a demonstration of cluster bomb warheads.