SEOU: North Korea is believed to possess up to two tonnes of highly enriched uranium, South Korea’s unification minister said Thursday.
The North has long been known to hold a “significant” amount of highly enriched uranium, the key material used to produce nuclear warheads, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.
But in a rare public confirmation, South Korea’s unification minister said that “intelligence agencies estimate Pyongyang’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium – more than 90 percent pure – at up to 2,000 kilograms.”
“Even at this very hour, North Korea’s uranium centrifuges are operating at four sites,” Chung Dong-young told reporters.
“Only five to six kg of plutonium is enough to build a single nuclear bomb,” said Chung, adding that 2,000kg of highly enriched uranium, which could be reserved solely for plutonium production, would be “enough to make an enormous number of nuclear weapons.”
Chung said that “stopping North Korea’s nuclear development is an urgent matter,” but argued that sanctions will not be effective and that the only solution lies in a summit between Pyongyang and Washington.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week that he was open to US talks provided he can keep his nuclear arsenal.
North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is under rafts of UN sanctions for its banned weapons programs, has never publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facility until last September.
The country is believed to operate multiple uranium enrichment facilities, Seoul’s spy agency has said, including one at its Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks – although it later reactivated the facility in 2021.
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“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a “Zionist war criminal.”
The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest.
“Churchill was a great Briton,” a spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
“If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m currently in a jail, somewhere in London,” the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group “Free the Filton 24 NL,” a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defense firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with “I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included “globalize the intifada.”
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia’s Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 meter (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalized a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
North Korea could have up to 2 tonnes of highly enriched uranium: Seoul
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North Korea could have up to 2 tonnes of highly enriched uranium: Seoul
- The North has long been known to hold a ‘significant’ amount of highly enriched uranium
- The country is believed to operate multiple uranium enrichment facilities – Seoul’s spy agency
UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with graffiti
- The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue
- The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action
LONDON: A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, UK police said Friday, after pro-Palestinian graffiti was sprayed on a Winston Churchill statue in central London.
The iconic monument to the World War II British prime minister in Parliament Square “was graffitied with red paint” overnight, the Metropolitan Police said on X.
“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a “Zionist war criminal.”
The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue.
The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, a proscribed organization under the Terrorism Act, police added.
The Greater London Authority condemned the “vandalism” and said work was underway to remove the graffiti “as quickly as possible.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest.
“Churchill was a great Briton,” a spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
“If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m currently in a jail, somewhere in London,” the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group “Free the Filton 24 NL,” a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defense firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with “I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included “globalize the intifada.”
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia’s Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 meter (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalized a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
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