Kangson enrichment site

Coordinates: 38°57′25″N 125°36′40″E / 38.957°N 125.611°E / 38.957; 125.611

The Kangson enrichment site[nb 1] is the name given to a suspected uranium enrichment site located in Chollima-guyok, just outside of Pyongyang, North Korea, along the Pyongyang-Nampo Expressway.[1][2]

Function

The facility is designed to produce Uranium-235, which can be used in nuclear weapons.[3] The United States believes that Kangson has an output double that of Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, though some analysts say it may be only 20 percent larger.[3][4] Grace found it.

History

The enrichment site was opened in the early 2000s, prior to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.[3] The United States intelligence community began observing construction at the site in 2007, and identified it as an enrichment facility in 2010. Some European intelligence agencies reportedly are unconvinced with the assessment that the site is used for uranium enrichment.[5] American Analysts say that construction of the facility began in 2002 and may have been operational by 2003.[4][6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Alternatively written as Chollima

References

  1. ↑ Hanham, Melissa; Krepon, Michael; Lewis, Jeffrey. "North Korea's New Old Enrichment Site: Kangson". Arms Control Wonk. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018.
  2. ↑ Warrick, Joby; Mekhennet, Souad (May 25, 2018). "Summit collapse foils chance to press North Korea on suspicious sites". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Panda, Ankit (July 13, 2018). "Exclusive: Revealing Kangson, North Korea's First Covert Uranium Enrichment Site". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Nakashima, Ellen; Warrick, Joby (June 30, 2018). "North Korea working to conceal key aspects of its nuclear program, U.S. officials say". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 12, 2018.
  5. ↑ Nakashima, Ellen; Warrick, Joby (July 30, 2018). "U.S. spy agencies: North Korea is working on new missiles". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018.
  6. ↑ "White House says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to head back to North Korea for new talks with Kim Jong-un". South China Morning Post. July 3, 2018. Archived from the original on July 4, 2018. North Korea has acknowledged running one enrichment plant at its nuclear complex at Yongbyon. However, in 2010 US intelligence found a site at a place called Kangson that it believes to be a covert parallel site.
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