North Korea has released the first photos of a uranium enrichment facility designed to produce the fuel used to create nuclear weapons.
Here's what we know about North Korea's growing nuclear arsenal.
Why is North Korea developing nuclear weapons?
North Korea says its arsenal of nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles that carry them are needed to counter threats from the US and its allies, which fought against the North in the 1950-1953 Korean War. .
Pyongyang often boasts that the weapons are a matter of national prestige and proof of the DPRK's power.
North Korea can launch nuclear weapons with a variety of land-based missile systems, including ICBMs within range of the continental US, the US-based Arms Control Association says.
Critics, including those in Washington and Seoul, say the weapons are destabilizing, pose a threat to North Korea's neighbors and divert resources from North Korean citizens who live in poverty.
The UN Security Council has passed multiple resolutions banning North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, although council members Russia and China have blocked new sanctions and called for existing ones to be eased.
How many nuclear weapons does North Korea have?
North Korean media has shown pictures of various types of warheads, but North Korea has never disclosed the number of weapons it has. Analysts and foreign intelligence services have only rough estimates.
A July report by the Federation of American Scientists concluded that the country may have produced enough nuclear material to build up to 90 nuclear warheads, but perhaps around 50 are fully ready.
Lee Sang-kyo, a nuclear engineer at South Korea's Defense Research Institute, says North Korea is believed to have 80-90 uranium and plutonium nuclear warheads, and that number is expected to rise. to 166 by 2030.
How does North Korea build its nuclear weapons?
North Korea has sites throughout its territory that work on its nuclear program, including mines where raw uranium is mined, enrichment facilities and nuclear reactors to convert uranium and plutonium into bomb fuel, as well as plants to weapons production.
The Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center, built in the late 1950s with Soviet help, has at least three reactors that North Korea says are designed to produce electricity.
There is also a fuel production and plutonium processing facility where weapons-grade materials can be extracted from spent fuel rods, says the Washington-based think tank the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
This is one of the possible locations of the enrichment site shown on Friday. North Korea is also believed to have more centrifuges, including at a site in Kangseong.
Where does North Korea test its weapons?
Pungeri Nuclear Test Site is located in a mountainous region in the remote northeastern corner of the country, about 100 km from the border with China.
North Korea has conducted all six of its nuclear tests at this site, in 2006, 2009, 2013, January 2016, September 2016 and September 2017. Analysts have cast doubt on North Korea's claims that the January 2016 explosion was its first thermonuclear bomb, but believe a similar weapon was likely tested in 2017, when there was an explosion much larger than past tests .
All tests were carried out in tunnels dug deep under the mountains. There are three visible entrances, known as the South Portal, the East Portal and the West Portal.
Entrances to these tunnels were blown up in front of a small group of foreign journalists invited to watch the destruction when North Korea closed the site in 2018 and announced a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear weapons tests.
Kim later said he no longer felt bound by the moratorium, with denuclearization talks deadlocked since 2019. In 2022, satellite images showed that North Korea was rebuilding part of the tunnels, creating the possibility of new tests.