U.S. says it continues monitoring N.K. nuclear ambitions after uranium enrichment facility disclosure

The United States continues to monitor North Korea’s progression in its nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile program, a White House official said Friday, after the recalcitrant regime made a rare disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility this week.

National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby made the remarks as the North’s state media reported Friday (Korea time) that leader Kim Jong-un recently visited a uranium enrichment base and called for increasing the number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment to bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal.

“I am not able to get into an intelligence analysis one way or the other here. I would simply say that we continue to monitor North Korean progression in their nuclear ambitions as well as their ballistic missile technology and program,” Kirby said in an online press briefing.

“That is exactly why or one of the reasons why President Biden has worked so hard to revitalize a network of alliances and partnerships in the region. It is also why he has devoted more, in particular, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, prioritizing those for the area on and around the Korean Peninsula,” he added.

He also stressed that Washington continues to make clear to Pyongyang that it is willing to sit down without preconditions.