The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed a "very significant increase" in North Korea's ability to produce nuclear weapons, driven by the likely construction of a new uranium enrichment facility and a rapid surge in activity at the Yongbyon nuclear complex (a key weapons site that Pyongyang claimed to have shut down but reactivated in 2021). IAEA director Rafael Grossi pointed to a newly observed building resembling existing uranium enrichment halls, a development corroborated by April satellite imagery analysed by the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, which suggested the facility may already be capable of producing weapons-grade material. North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and has since defied successive rounds of international sanctions, is now regarded as an established nuclear power with dozens of warheads — and its leader, Kim Jong-un, has publicly ruled out any surrender of the country's nuclear arsenal.