N Korea enrichment plant in operation

North Korean media outlets say Pyongyang is operating a plant with thousands of centrifuges to create “nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”

“The construction of light water reactor is brisk in the DPRK and a modern factory for uranium enrichment equipped with thousands of centrifuges is operating to supply fuel to them,” North Korea’s KCNA news service said, stressing that the plant is built for providing civil nuclear power.

“The development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to meet the need for electricity will be stepped up in the future,” the North’s official news agency said on Tuesday.

The news comes as an American scientist reported that North Korea has shown him a new, modern enrichment plant with hundreds of centrifuges.

North Korea and the US, alongside its allies, have been at loggerheads over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Washington described the announcement as a provocative act of defiance by North Korea, stressing that the country wants to blackmail the international community with missiles and nuclear tests.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on November 21 that Pyongyang was “continuing on a path which is destabilizing for the region.”

The developments also come as confrontation between North and South Korea began after an artillery exchange between the two sides resulted in the death of two South Korean servicemen and two civilians on South’s Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea last Tuesday.

Pyongyang accuses US President Barack Obama of plotting with regional allies to topple the country’s government, insisting that its nuclear program is a deterrent against US forces in the region.