North Korea boosting ability to manufacture nuclear arms, IAEA chief warns The nuclear watchdog’s chief says there is a rapid increase in operations at North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor. North Korea is showing a “very serious increase” in its ability to produce atomic weapons, according to Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The diplomatically isolated country is believed to operate multiple facilities for enriching uranium, a key step in making nuclear warheads, South Korea’s spy agency has said. These include one at the Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks but later reactivated in 2021. Recommended Storieslist of 4 items - list 1 of 4Kim Jong Un reappointed as president of North Korea - list 2 of 4Kim Jong Un says North Korea will never give up on nuclear weapons - list 3 of 4North Korea’s Kim meets Lukashenko, slams ‘pressure on Belarus from West’ - list 4 of 4North Korea keeping Iran at arm’s length, reports Seoul “In our periodic assessments, we have been able to confirm that there’s a rapid increase in the operations” of the Yongbyon reactor, Grossi told reporters in Seoul on Wednesday. The agency also observed a rise in operations at Yongbyon’s reprocessing unit and light-water reactor, as well as the activation of other facilities, Grossi said. “All that points to a very serious increase in the capabilities of [the] DPRK in the area of nuclear weapons production, which is estimated at a few dozen warheads,” he said, using North Korea’s official name. ‘New facility’ North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, is under a slew of United Nations sanctions for its banned weapons programmes. It has declared that it will never surrender its nuclear weapons, and cut off access to IAEA inspectors in 2009. The agency has noted the construction of a “new facility similar to the enrichment facility in Yongbyon”, Grossi said. It was “not easy to calculate” any production increases without visiting the site. However, “we consider, looking at external features of the facility, that there will be a significant increase in the enrichment capacity of the DPRK”, he said. Asked whether Russia was assisting North Korea’s nuclear development, Grossi said the IAEA had not seen “anything in particular in that regard”. North Korea has sent ground troops and artillery shells to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and observers say Pyongyang is receiving military technology assistance from Moscow in return.
North Korea boosting ability to manufacture nuclear arms, IAEA chief warns The nuclear watchdog’s chief says there is a rapid increase in operations at North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor. North Korea is showing a “very serious increase” in its ability to produce atomic weapons, accor…
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International mediators have proposed a 10-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran, according to a senior Iranian official cited in reports. The measure is described as intended to reduce hostilities and allow renewed talks on a prior interim agreement.
Both sides are assessing next steps in the current regional security situation.
Reports indicate that a US-Iran ceasefire has broken down amid renewed fighting, with the potential impact of mediation efforts by Pakistan, Qatar, and Oman remaining unclear. Earlier diplomatic steps included a June memorandum of understanding between the parties for further negotiations and talks hosted in Geneva in February.
The summary also references Europe’s historical role in diplomacy, including the 1814-15 Congress of Vienna.
Donald Trump stated in a Fox News interview that his representatives had spoken with Iranian officials an hour earlier and that those officials wanted to make a deal to end the conflict, though he noted they had broken prior agreements and expressed uncertainty about whether one would be reached.
He added that people do not want to die and that Iran would need to proceed carefully to avoid further losses. The remarks come amid an ongoing US-Iran conflict that has involved casualties and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, with some social media users criticizing the repetition of similar statements.
Why the Iran-US ceasefire is falling apart Iran and the US have resumed fighting because they don’t see each other as ‘reliable negotiating partners’, says analyst Ali Vaez. Neither Iran nor the United States seems able to deliver a “knockout blow at an acceptable price” to the other side, and both know “they have no choice other than engaging in diplomacy”, but they’re not ready to make uncomfortable concessions, argues Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at International Crisis Group.
Vaez tells host Steve Clemons that Tehran and Washington are trying to “enforce their own interpretation” of the ceasefire agreement they signed last month. President Trump has become “frustrated” with diplomacy because he’s not seeing “the kind of quick results that he likes to see”, Vaez says.