International

North Korea seeks to break into the US presidential elections with its uranium centrifuges

By showing for the first time its facilities to manufacture fuel for nuclear bombs this Friday, North Korea is positioned to acquire prominence in the campaign for the presidential elections in the United States while the fear increases that it will soon carry out a large-scale weapons test.

It is a forceful gesture on the part of the regime of Kim Jong-un, which these days visited a plant full of cascades of uranium centrifuges – apparently more advanced than initially estimated by the experts – and ordered to increase the number of these devices “to exponentially increase the number of nuclear weapons.”

These are some keys to try to decipher this calculated message that Pyongyang – which since 2019 has refused to resume the dialogue on disarmament – has decided to issue with just over seven weeks to go for the Americans to elect a new president.

A gloomy uranium enrichment program

Few details are known about how, where and how much uranium is capable of enriching North Korea, as well as the level of concentration of isotopes of the resulting material (the higher the concentration of uranium-235, the more fligible the fuel of the pump).

Until now, North Korea had only shown in 2010 some facilities at the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center (about 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang) to the American scientist Siegfried Hecker, who estimated that the place housed about 2,000 gas centrifuges – a more outdated model than the one shown on Friday – to produce low-enrichment uranium.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

Intelligence services and analysts assume that the regime has at least another processing center in Kangson, on the outskirts of the North Korean capital.

It is this Kangson enclosure that is believed to have been shown by the North Korean media (which do not mention the location of the plant), since they claim that Kim Jong-un visited the surface under construction for new centrifuges, something that agrees with a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that warns that an annex is being built in this complex located southwest of Pyongyang.

The chosen moment

The vast majority of experts believe that North Korea has chosen to show its centrifuges a few weeks before the US elections to regain prominence at a time when its weapons programs did not come to light even once in this week’s debate between candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as they did not do in June between Trump and Joe Biden.

Although North Korea is not an issue that currently conditions the vote of the Americans, the message that Pyongyang has sent today is that it will be an issue that will require attention from those who inherit the presidency from Biden.

“For Trump the message is ‘after the fiasco of (the summit of) Hanoi our atomic program goes ahead. If you want to stop it, you will have to sit down and negotiate.’ And for Harris it’s a bit the same; ‘Biden’s policy has failed, you’ll see if you want to sit down and negotiate,’” Ramón Pacheco Pardo, director of the chair on politics on the Korean peninsula at the Free University of Brussels, explains to EFE.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

Pacheco Pardo is one of those who believe that Pyongyang is willing to resume dialogue to lower sanctions or achieve a security agreement, but in terms different from those of 2019 in Hanoi, since today’s announcement endorses what Pyongyang has been saying in recent years: that there is no longer any possibility of him abandoning nuclear weapons.

What to expect in the coming weeks

Seoul and Washington and different experts have warned in recent weeks about the possibility of Pyongyang choosing to carry out just – before or after the presidential elections in the US – important weapons of mass destruction tests to get the attention of the new tenant of the White House.

It could be the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), possibly equipped with a multiple and independent re-entry vehicle (like the one tested in June), to show once again that North Korea can theoretically reach the US. This possibility charges integers after Pyongyang showed a new and impressive 12-axle mobile erector shuttle (TEL) last week.

A nuclear test now seems a little more unlikely, not only because it is something that can always anger China and Russia (which support the lifting of sanctions on Pyongyang), but because the damage caused by the monsoon in the accesses to the remote test center of Punggye-ri (northeast of the country) and recently detected by the satellites will require important repairs in the coming weeks.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

International

Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting on Middle East Crisis

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday condemned the “military escalation in the Middle East” following attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, just hours before an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

“I call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” Guterres said in a statement.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Saturday at 21:00 GMT (4:00 p.m. in New York) to address “the situation in the Middle East,” the United Nations announced.

The meeting, during which Guterres will deliver remarks, was convened at the request of France, Bahrain, Colombia, Russia and China, according to a diplomatic source.

International

Trump Floats “Friendly Takeover” of Cuba Amid Rising Tensions

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration is considering what he described as a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, as Washington continues to increase pressure on the island’s communist government.

“The Cuban government is talking to us and they have very serious problems, as you know. They have no money, they have nothing at this moment, but they are talking to us and maybe we will see a friendly takeover of Cuba,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a trip to Texas.

Earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba needed a “radical change,” shortly after Washington eased restrictions on oil exports to the island for what officials described as “humanitarian reasons,” amid a deep economic crisis.

The United States has imposed an energy blockade on Cuba since January, citing what it calls an “extraordinary threat” posed by the communist-run island, located roughly 150 kilometers (90 miles) off the coast of Florida, to U.S. national security.

International

Argentina’s Senate Reviews Milei-Backed Labor Overhaul

Argentina’s Senate on Friday began reviewing the Labor Modernization Law promoted by the administration of President Javier Milei, a proposal that would significantly reshape labor rules across the country.

The upper chamber opened its final discussion of the contentious initiative, which revises the method used to calculate severance payments — lowering the amounts owed in dismissal cases — and introduces an “hour bank” mechanism that allows overtime to be offset with paid leave rather than extra wages.

The legislation also broadens the classification of essential services, a change that would place new limits on the right to strike in designated sectors.

The bill was initially approved by the Senate on February 11 and then moved to the Chamber of Deputies, where lawmakers passed it with amendments. It has now returned to the Senate for definitive approval.

Outside the Congress building in Buenos Aires, workers, trade unions and left-wing organizations staged demonstrations beginning at midday. The gathering later thinned out amid reports of disturbances and a strong police presence. Security forces had secured the area surrounding the legislature since early morning hours.

20260224_estafa_mh_728x90

Union leaders contend that the reform weakens labor protections, while many business representatives back the measure but stress that sustainable formal employment will require economic expansion, improved credit conditions, greater investment and a more dynamic domestic market.