‘Could be a decoy’: North Korea’s nuclear upgrades are visible from space

New satellite imagery suggests North Korea has spent the past year steadily enlarging and modernising its main fissile material site, in what analysts call a concrete response to leader Kim Jong-un’s demand for his nuclear arsenal’s “exponential growth”.

Commercial satellite images of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre from October and November show renovation and large-scale expansion across the complex, according to 38North, a website from US think tank the Stimson Centre devoted to analysis of North Korea.

“These improvements all serve to help fulfil Kim’s call for exponential growth of its nuclear weapons arsenals,” it said.

Yongbyon is the regime’s only known producer of plutonium and a key source of enriched uranium for its nuclear weapons.

Recent activity observed at the site appears to align with Kim’s instructions during inspections of nuclear-related facilities in January, when he called 2025 a “crucial year” for bolstering nuclear forces and producing weapons-grade nuclear material.