Unification Minister Chung Dong-young Clarifies Remarks on North Korea’s Kusong Facility to U.S.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry has clarified to the United States that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young’s recent identification of North Korea’s Kusong region as housing a uranium enrichment facility was based solely on publicly available information, officials confirmed on Friday.

The clarification followed Chung Dong-young’s remarks during a National Assembly plenary session on April 15, 2026, in which he referenced Kusong as a third location for uranium enrichment activities in North Korea. The ministry emphasized that the minister’s comments did not reveal classified intelligence but were derived from open-source materials accessible to the public.

Chung Dong-young, who has served as Minister of Unification since July 2025 under President Lee Jae Myung, made the comments amid heightened diplomatic efforts to revive stalled dialogue between the United States and North Korea. He had previously proposed appointing a special envoy to facilitate U.S.-North Korea talks, a measure still under review by the president as of mid-April 2026.

The minister also noted that the period leading up to U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned trip to China for summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping was seen as critical for advancing peace on the Korean Peninsula. During the same National Assembly session, Chung observed that Washington was moving “under the table” regarding the agenda for the Trump-Xi summit, without providing further detail.

The Unification Ministry’s explanation to U.S. Officials aimed to prevent any misunderstanding about the nature of the information disclosed and to maintain transparency in trilateral communications involving South Korea, the United States, and North Korea-related security matters.

As of April 2026, inter-Korean dialogue remains stalled, and efforts to resume U.S.-North Korea negotiations continue to face challenges amid broader regional geopolitical dynamics.