North Korea has 2 tonnes of highly enriched uranium, Seoul warns

South Korea has said that Pyongyang possesses up to two tonnes of highly enriched uranium, the key component to manufacturing nuclear warheads.

While it has been public knowledge that North Korea holds a “significant” amount of uranium, this is the first time Seoul’s unification minister has confirmed that “intelligence agencies estimate Pyongyang’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium – more than 90 per cent pure – at up to 2,000 kilogrammes.”

“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 2,000 kg of highly enriched uranium, which could be reserved solely for plutonium production, would be “enough to make an enormous number of nuclear weapons”.

Chung said that “stopping North Korea’s nuclear development is an urgent matter”, but argued that sanctions will not be effective and that the only solution lies in a summit between Pyongyang and Washington.

Kim opens door for talks with US

South Korea’s admission comes after Kim Jong Un said he was open to future talks with the United States if Washington drops its demand that the country give up its nuclear weapons.

“If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based on recognising reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The demand for Kim to relinquish his nuclear arsenal has long been a major point of contention between the two countries, with Pyongyang facing multiple rounds of UN sanctions over its prohibited weapons programs.

Since the failed 2019 summit, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons and declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Kim reiterated that denuclearisation was not an option.

“The world already knows well what the United States does after it forces a country to give up its nuclear arms and disarm,” he said.

With inputs from agencies