Kangson enrichment site

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][3]

Function

The facility is suspected of being designed to produce Uranium-235, which can be used in nuclear weapons.[4] The United States believed that Kangson has an output double that of Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, though some analysts say it may be only 20 percent larger.[4][5]

In 2020 Olli Heinonen, formerly Deputy Director-General for Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency, raised doubts about the building being an enrichment site. Commercial satellite imagery going back to the construction of the main building in the early 2000s raised doubts about the allegation. Early satellite images suggest the main building consists of multiple floors, and the second story likely has concrete flooring as would be found in an industrial workshop rather than a gas enrichment centrifuge hall. Essential support buildings, such as for decontamination of failed or ageing centrifuges were absent. Heinonen suggested it might be a secure machine tool workshop for production and testing of centrifuge components.[6]

In 2021, Siegfried S. Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who has visited North Korea nuclear facilities many times on behalf of the U.S., also stated that he was not convinced that Kangson was an enrichment site.[7]

History

The site was opened in the early 2000s, prior to enrichment activities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.[4] 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 were unconvinced with the assessment that the site is used for uranium enrichment.[8] American analysts said that construction of the facility began in 2002 and it may have been operational by 2003.[5][9]

In IAEA reports on North Korea in 2020, it was described that there are a group of buildings observation appear to be a uranium enrichment facility, and regular vehicle movements at the site suggest that activities are ongoing.[10][11][12] However, further analysis of commercial satellite imagery raised doubts about that conclusion later that year. The characteristics of the site are more consistent with a plant that could manufacture components for centrifuges.[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. Madden, Michael (August 3, 2018). "Much Ado About Kangson". 38 North. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Heinonen, Olli (18 December 2020). "New Evidence Suggests Kangson Is Not a Uranium Enrichment Plant". 38 North. The Henry L. Stimson Center. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  7. Hecker, Siegfried (30 April 2021). "Estimating North Korea's Nuclear Stockpiles: An Interview With Siegfried Hecker". 38 North. The Henry L. Stimson Center. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  8. 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.
  9. "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.
  10. "GOV2020/42-GC(64)/18: Application of Safeguards in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" (PDF). IAEA. September 1, 2020. p. 5. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  11. "IAEA concerned about N.Korea's nuclear activities". NHK World Japan. September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  12. "No sign North Korea reprocessed plutonium in past year, still enriching uranium, IAEA says". Reuters. September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
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