On the 9th (local time), Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stated at a regular board meeting that a new nuclear facility is under construction in Yongbyon, located in the northwest of North Korea.
According to Kyodo News on the 10th, Grossi noted the day before at the IAEA regular board meeting held in Vienna, Austria, that "North Korea is building a new facility in the Yongbyon area that is similar to nuclear-related facilities in Gangseong, near Pyongyang."
The IAEA has continuously monitored the trends of North Korea's nuclear facilities through satellite images and other means. Since North Korea withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 2003, access to nuclear facilities in North Korea has been blocked.
The new nuclear facility likely indicates that North Korea is expanding the existing Yongbyon nuclear complex or developing nuclear technology.
North Korean media reported that Kim Jong Un, the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, inspected a nuclear material production base and a nuclear weapons research institute in January of this year. Earlier, in September of last year, there were also reports of a similar inspection, as noted by the Korean Central News Agency and others.
These media outlets unusually released photos from inside the facility, but they did not disclose specific locations on both occasions.
North Korea's release of internal facility images seems to be intended to showcase its nuclear capabilities. However, experts have analyzed that concealing the exact locations aims to evade international scrutiny.