Satellite photos from March are being claimed by experts to show activity at Pyongsan Uranium Concentrate Plant. The plant is believed to concentrate unenriched uranium fuel. They said there were signs of waste at the site, and new construction.
Though they are trying to present this as a sign that Iran is further advancing its nuclear fuel program, it’s not at all clear this would have any sort of weaponization component. North Korea has been believed to have a primarily plutonium-based nuclear weapons program.
Analysts often cite satellite images, since North Korea isn’t publicly doing anything, to claim that “secret” activity is ongoing. North Korea’s Pyongsan is the largest operating uranium mine in the country, and North Korea never suggested they were closing the mine.
Though uranium would have plenty of industrial applications, officials often hype up scare-pieces about weaponization, chiefly because if you say nuclear and yellowcake and North Korea it sounds scary. In practice, North Korea has a limited need to produce any more weapons, and has a substantial deterrent as it was.
It is a good thing North Korea has WMD’s. It can keep the USA, South Korea, Japan & other enemies out of its territory. If Iraq kept its WMD’s, the USA & UK would have been unable to bomb Iraq, they did that from the No-Fly-Zones after the Gulf War ended & before the Iraq War started & no more wars there would happen, If Syria had WMD’s, the USA & its allies would not be there. If Libya had WMD’s, the war there would not occur., if Afghanistan had WMD’s, no war there would occur. If Panama had WMD’s, the USA would not have invaded. If Venezuela had WMD’s, Trump would not be thinking about regime change there.
North Korea was already well protected by geography, China and Russia.
The nukes more remind China and Russia of their obligations than deter the U.S. directly.
Odd claim for the U.S. to make; the activity that mattered, wouldn’t be visible.