North Korea’s Kim Jong Un observed launches of two cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles from his prized new warship, the 5,000-ton-class destroyer Choe Hyon, state media claimed Tuesday. 

The cruise missiles flew for more than two hours and the anti-ship missiles for more than 30 minutes along pre-set trajectories over the country’s western seas before accurately striking their targets on Sunday, according to North Korea’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun. 

One image released by the Korean Central News Agency showed Kim standing next to North Korean officials while watching a projectile fly away from the ship.  

Kim has hailed the development of the Choe Hyon, which was first unveiled in April 2025, as a major step toward expanding the operational reach and preemptive strike capabilities of his military.

NORTH KOREA FIRES MISSILES TOWARD SEA AFTER RIDICULING SOUTH'S HOPES FOR BETTER TIES

State media claim the warship is designed to carry a range of systems, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. South Korean officials and experts say the vessel was likely built with Russian assistance amid deepening military ties, but some experts question whether it’s ready for active service, The Associated Press reported. 

After Sunday’s tests, Kim said his government remained focused on the "limitless expansion" of its nuclear forces and issued unspecified new tasks to sharpen the country’s nuclear attack and rapid-response capabilities. He also reviewed plans for the weapons systems for his third and fourth destroyers currently being built, Rodong Sinmun claimed. 

NORTH KOREA RELAUNCHES WARSHIP THAT SUFFERED EMBARRASSING FAILURE DURING INITIAL LAUNCH

North Korea unveiled a second destroyer of the same class in May last year – the Kang Kon -- but it was damaged during a botched launch at the northern port of Chongjin. It later was relaunched in June following repairs. 

State media says a third destroyer under construction at the Nampo shipyard on the country’s western coast is expected to be completed by the ruling Workers’ Party’s founding anniversary in October, according to the AP.

North Korea also conducted a series of tests last week that state media said involved various new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads, while its senior officials issued statements ridiculing South Korean hopes for warmer relations. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The Iranian regime’s retention of key nuclear weapons sites and material for building atomic bombs — highly enriched uranium — has led to new efforts by the U.S. and Israeli to take out the last vestiges of the regime's program.

On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its "Air Force Struck the Arak Heavy Water Plant — A Key Plutonium Production Site for Nuclear Weapons." The Arak plant is located in central Iran.

Prior to Friday's attack, an IDF spokesperson, speaking in reference to Arak, told Fox News Digital there is a "high estimation" that attacks on "uranium enrichment sites are part of the plan.":

The IDF declined to answer more specific questions about its target list and if any ground operations to retrieve the nuclear weapons-grade uranium were being considered.

NEXT MOVE ON IRAN: SEIZE KHARG ISLAND, SECURE URANIUM OR RISK GROUND WAR ESCALATION

Reuters, quoting regime media outlet Fars, reported that joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Friday hit the Khondab heavy water research reactor. 

A statement released by the IDF said, "Heavy water is a unique material used to operate nuclear reactors, such as the inactive Arak reactor, which was originally designed to have weapons-grade plutonium production capabilities. These materials can also be used as a neutron source for nuclear weapons.

"The plant was a significant economic asset for the terror regime and served as a source of income for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, generating tens of millions of dollars for the regime each year."

The regime's foreign minister posted a condemnation of Israel and warned the Jewish state, "Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes."

According to an article published by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), "The IR-40 Arak, aka Khondab, Heavy Water Reactor and Heavy Water Production Plant date to the early 2000s. … The reactor core design was ideal for making substantial amounts of weapon-grade plutonium for nuclear weapons."

STRIKES MAY SET IRAN BACK — BUT LIKELY WON'T END NUCLEAR PROGRAM, UN WATCHDOG CHIEF SAYS

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital, "The one nuclear site which hasn’t been hit to date has been Pickaxe Mountain, so striking that site as part of Operation Epic Fury will be important to further degrade the Iranian nuclear program."

A White House spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to President Trump’s Cabinet meeting comments about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. 

"We're free to roam over their cities and towns and destroy all of their crazy nuclear weapons and missiles and drones that they're building," Trump said Thursday.

David Albright, a physicist, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told Fox News Digital that with respect to key nuclear weapons facilities that remain, "The elephants in the tent are Natanz and Isfahan. There was an attack on Natanz that the Iranians revealed, but the Israelis said we are not aware of an attack. So, it must have been the U.S."

TRUMP SAYS US, ISRAEL SHATTERED IRANIAN MILITARY CAPABILITIES, PRESSES LEADERS TO SURRENDER: 'CRY UNCLE'

He said Natanz has enriched uranium. 

"The Iranians were doing recovery operations in the underground fuel enrichment plant there and continuing to build this Pickaxe Mountain tunnel complex, which could hold enriched uranium. Right next to it is another tunnel complex that was built much earlier, around 2007. … And the Iranians sealed it up, fortified it. There is something obviously important there."

Albright said U.S. and Israeli airstrikes "have not attacked the underground Isfahan site. We know, according to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], highly enriched uranium is in that site. There may be an enrichment plant under construction in that underground complex. We would like that site to be attacked."

Albright warned that the war should not end like the previous U.S.-Israel war with Iran in 2025 with Tehran retaining the "crown jewels" of its atomic weapons program — highly enriched uranium and a number of centrifuges.

"You don’t want it to come out of this war with the same kind of nuclear weapons capabilities that it had at the end of June war with a higher incentive to build a bomb," Albright said. That is why it's so important "to finish the job" in Iran, he added.

North Korean's Kim Jong Un pledged to solidify his nation's nuclear status while keeping a hard-line position regarding South Korea, which he referred to as the "most hostile" state, state media indicated Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

In a speech Monday to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, Kim accused the United States of global "state terrorism and aggression," in an apparent reference to the war in the Middle East, and said North Korea will play a more forceful role in a united front against Washington amid rising anti-American sentiment.

The AP reported that the North Korean official indicated that the matter of whether opponents "choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence is up to them, and we are prepared to respond to any choice."

KIM JONG UN APPEARS WITH TEENAGE DAUGHTER AT LIVE-FIRE ROCKET TEST IN NORTH KOREA

"The dignity of the nation, its national interest and its ultimate victory can only be guaranteed by the strongest of power," Kim stated, according to the AP. "The government of our republic will continue to consolidate our absolutely irreversible status as a nuclear power and will aggressively wage a struggle against hostile forces to crush their (anti-North Korean) provocations and schemes."

KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT

The 2026 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community states, "North Korea remains committed to expanding its strategic weapons programs, including missiles and nuclear warheads, and to solidifying its deterrent capability." 

TRUMP'S IRAN STRATEGY SHOWCASES ‘DOCTRINE OF UNPREDICTABILITY’ AMID STRIKE THREATS AND SUDDEN PAUSE

The U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran more than three weeks ago in a bid to prevent the Islamic Republic from potentially joining the ranks of other nations that possess nuclear weapons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Iran’s potentially most dangerous nuclear site is buried as deep as 100 meters below a granite mountain, according to new assessments, and one nonproliferation expert warned it must be "neutralized" before the U.S. war with Iran ends.

This came as new figures released Wednesday by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) show that U.S. and Israeli forces launched Operation Epic Fury in late February and have since struck more than 7,800 targets in Iran as the conflict enters Day 18.

"Before the United States and Israel end major combat operations against Iran, they must complete two urgent tasks," Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Nonproliferation Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a policy briefing.

WHILE UN ISSUES MIXED SIGNALS, WITKOFF EXPOSES IRAN'S NUCLEAR EVASION ‘PRIDE’

"First, they must neutralize Pickaxe Mountain. Second, they must recover or eliminate highly enriched uranium stocks to prevent them from falling into the hands of surviving regime elements, other adversarial states or terrorist proxies."

High-resolution satellite imagery from mid-February shows Iran's accelerated efforts to reinforce the site at Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, known as "Pickaxe Mountain," against potential airstrikes, according to the Institute for Science and International Security.

"At one of the eastern tunnel entrances, rock and soil can be seen pushed back and leveled on top of the tunnel portal," the institute's report said.

"Additionally, over the last month, a concrete-reinforced headworks for the tunnel entrance extension was added. This allows for additional overburden in the form of rock, soil or concrete."

STRIKES MAY SET IRAN BACK — BUT LIKELY WON'T END NUCLEAR PROGRAM, UN WATCHDOG CHIEF SAYS

The report added that "these efforts strengthen the tunnel portals and provide additional protection against an airstrike," noting visible piles of construction materials near the entrances.

Preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon is one of President Donald Trump’s stated war aims. 

In June 2025, U.S. forces carried out strikes against nuclear sites, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Iran had roughly 441 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% as of June 2025, enough material, if further enriched to weapons-grade levels, for multiple nuclear weapons, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Rafael Grossi, its director general, also said March 9 that the U.N. watchdog believes roughly 200 kilograms of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile are still stored in deep tunnels at a nuclear complex outside Isfahan.

SATELLITE IMAGES REVEAL ACTIVITY AT IRAN NUCLEAR SITES BOMBED BY US, ISRAEL

Grossi added that additional quantities of highly enriched uranium are believed to be at another nuclear center in Natanz, where Iran has constructed a new fortified underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain.

On March 9, Trump pointed to Iran’s efforts to resume nuclear activity at a deeper site and said Tehran has continued pursuing a nuclear weapon "even after we obliterated their key nuclear sites."

"They were starting work at another site, a different site … that was protected by granite. … They wanted to go a lot deeper, and they started the process," Trump said, according to reports.

According to Stricker, the "different site" referenced by Trump is Pickaxe Mountain, where Iran has said it has been building a centrifuge assembly plant at the site since 2021. The site is a mile from its Natanz enrichment plant.

"The size of the facility, as well as the protection provided by the tall mountain, raised immediate concerns about whether additional sensitive activities are planned, such as uranium enrichment," the Institute for Science and International Security also noted in its report.

At the beginning of March, a vehicle was struck outside the site, presumably by Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported, before suggesting that the vehicle strike was evidence the U.S. and Israel are watching the mountain carefully.

The stunning details revealed by Steve Witkoff on his talks with Iran and their boastful remarks about its nuclear program have seemingly fallen on deaf ears at the U.N. nuclear agency.

Days into the U.S.-Israel joint campaign against Iran, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi posted to X stating, "There has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb."

Fox News Digital asked the IAEA how it could assess the development of a possible nuclear weapon without access to Iran’s facilities but received no response at press time.

Grossi's post came as the U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff gave details to Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this week on his talks with the regime prior to the U.S. and Israel launching their military operation against Tehran.

SATELLITE IMAGES REVEAL ACTIVITY AT IRAN NUCLEAR SITES BOMBED BY US, ISRAEL

Witkoff revealed the negotiators said they had an "inalienable right" to enrich uranium. When Witkoff countered that the Trump administration had the "inalienable right to stop [them, ]" he explained that the negotiators said this was only their starting point.

"They have 10,000, roughly, kilograms of fissionable material that's broken up into roughly 460 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, another 1,000 kilograms 20% enriched uranium," Witkoff explained. "They manufacture their own centrifuges to enrich this material, so there's almost no stopping them. They have an endless supply of it. The 60% material can be brought to 90% - that's weapon grade — in roughly one week, maybe 10 days at the outside. The 20% can be brought to weapons grade inside of three to four weeks."

Witkoff added that during his first meeting with the negotiators, they said "with no shame that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% and they're aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of this negotiating stance."

"They were proud of it. They were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs," Witkoff said.

Grossi, who is running to become the next United Nations secretary general, did however admit in his post on X that Iran maintains "a large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched uranium" and said that the Islamic Republic has not allowed inspectors full access to its program. With these facts in mind, he said that the IAEA "will not be in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful" until Iran "assists…in resolving the outstanding safeguards issues."

Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, FDD, told Fox News Digital, "No one paid much attention to Rafael Grossi throughout the Biden years when he repeatedly warned publicly that Iran was refusing to cooperate with and providing false statements to the IAEA about ongoing investigations into undeclared facilities, activities and nuclear material."

PHYSICIST LAWMAKER WARNS US LACKS CLEAR PLAN FOR IRAN’S ENRICHED URANIUM

The former Trump administration official said, "There are some key facts being ignored today. The IAEA board last year found Iran to be in breach of the NPT. To this day, Grossi has confirmed that the IAEA cannot verify the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful."

He continued, "This is not Iraq where we lacked hard public evidence of a nuclear weapons program. Iran had built out nearly every part of its nuclear weapons program in plain sight, with the weaponization work moving forward at undeclared sites controlled by SPND. If the administration had evidence the regime was moving quickly to reconstitute key elements of that program — from advanced centrifuge manufacturing to completion of a new underground enrichment site alongside advancement of delivery vehicle programs - the president was fully justified in enforcing a red line he set after Operation Midnight Hammer."

Spencer Faragasso, a senior fellow at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told Fox News Digital that his organization calculated prior to the June 2025 12 Day War that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of 60% rich uranium. With about 24 or 25 kilograms of 90% rich uranium required per weapon, Faragasso said the country possessed the ability to produce 11 weapons in one month.

Faragasso said that there remain questions about whether the Iranians can access their enriched materials, and whether they possess additional centrifuges that may have not been installed in the facilities that were struck.

US EMBASSY URGES AMERICANS IN IRAQ TO SHELTER IN PLACE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

"Being able to enrich the uranium up to weapon grade is actually a tall order," he said, explaining that it would require a new enrichment site and components and materials that "Iran would either need to recover from its destroyed facilities" or "illicitly import them from abroad." With a few hundred centrifuges, enough for two or three cascades, Faragasso said the Iranians could have enriched their uranium stores to weapon grade.

"To be clear, the successes gained from the June war are not permanent and officials from the regime spoke publicly about how they wanted to reconstitute their enrichment program, their nuclear program," he said. "The more time that goes on, the worse the situation will get. It’s not going to get better, especially regarding the ballistic missile program."

He said the Iranians had previously expressed the desire to open a fourth enrichment site, which the IAEA stated was at Esfahan. According to Faragasso, there was "never confirmation" of where the site was or how far along construction may have been.

The group is now tracking an Israeli strike on March 3 on Min-Zadayi, a site that Faragasso said "was completely unknown" to them previously. The Israel Defense Forces reported on X that the site was "used by a group of nuclear scientists who operated to develop a key component for nuclear weapons." 

The State Department referred Fox News Digital to remarks made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the press on Tuesday on Iran's nuclear program. 

"This terroristic, radical, cleric-led regime cannot be ever allowed to have nuclear weapons." Explaining that the Islamic Republic was "willing to slaughter their own people in the streets," Rubio directed members of the press to "imagine what they would do to us. Imagine what they would do to others. Under President Trump that will never, ever happen," he said.